Multiple Students Injured in Bemidji School Bus Rollover Crash
Update 5/4: Authorities have released the names of the individuals involved in the incident. The driver of the passenger vehicle has been identified as Thomas Lee Nielsen, 29 of Chattanooga, TN and the bus driver of the bus as Patrick Russell Stout, 47, of Bemidji.
The Minnesota State Patrol is currently working with the Beltrami Sheriff’s Department with reconstructing the accident. The incident remains under investigation at this time.
BEMIDJI, Minn. – Around 8:00 a.m., the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office responded to a crash on Irvine Avenue at South Movil Lake Road in Northern Township north of Bemidji involving a passenger car and a Bemidji ISD school bus.
First responders and officers arrived on scene to find the bus on its side in the west ditch. Several students were still inside the bus. Rescue crews quickly removed students, five were transported by ground ambulance to Sanford, as they had apparent injuries.
One student was transferred by air ambulance with a more serious injury after they were pinned inside the bus and had to be extricated by Bemidji Fire Rescue.
Investigators learned the bus was travelling southbound on Irvine and the driver of the passenger car had been eastbound on South Movil Lake Road and drove through the stop sign striking the school bus in the right side causing the school bus to lose control and swerve into the soft shoulder on the west side of Irvine rolling on its side in the ditch, according to the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Department.
The Bemidji School District and Sanford Hospital Staff handled crisis care with assistance from Upper Mississippi Mental Health Center and several area Pastors who responded to the Emergency Department with assistance.
LPTV News was on scene:
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