I-94 bus crash: Waking to disaster

A tour bus filled with high school band students from Pelican Rapids, Minn., flipped at Albertville in the northwest metro area early Saturday, killing one student and leaving dozens injured.

The students were on an all-night trip home from a four-day cultural tour of Chicago when the bus crashed at 5:45 a.m. on Interstate 94, killing 10th-grader Jessica Weishair. Two students were in critical condition Saturday night.

Rescuers spent hours prying students out of the wreckage. Some who were pinned under the bus or thrown from it were taken by ambulance and helicopter to nearby hospitals. The westbound lanes of I-94 in that area were closed all morning.

A second bus also carrying band members back to Pelican Rapids, which is 170 miles northwest of the Twin Cities, wasn't involved in the accident. Lt. Mark Peterson of the State Patrol said it is unclear why the first bus left a dry road and crashed on its side just east of the Albertville Premium Outlets near the County Road 37 bridge.

Some of the students had arms and legs pinned under the bus when firefighters arrived, Peterson said. The bus was carrying 43 students, four chaperones, a tour director and the driver.

Mike Boen of the Otter Tail County Sheriff's Office said that Weishair had recently turned 16, had started driving and had just been hired at the Cenex gas station in Pelican Rapids.

Her parents, Stacy and Kim Weishair, run a hair salon in Pelican Rapids and have two other children. "This is just a travesty," Boen said.

In a statement, the Weishairs expressed gratitude "for the love, concern and respect that has been offered to us in the sudden death of our precious Jessica." They added: "Even though we are struggling with our grief, we hold in our thoughts those who have been injured and all the students, staff, chaperones and their families who were involved in the band trip."

Funeral arrangements were being made for Weishair at Larson Funeral Home in Pelican Rapids.

Many were asleep beforehand

"They said it was dark and that they were all asleep," said Gloria O'Connell, spokeswoman for Allina Hospitals & Clinics. "They woke up when the bus crashed, and the paramedics showed up really fast."

Mel Hage of Maple Grove, great-uncle of Mikala Gray, 15, a clarinet player on the bus, said some of the people on the other bus who witnessed the crash told him it went airborne over the entrance ramp to the freeway. It then flipped and slid to its resting place.

Hage said his great-niece was sleeping at the time. She woke up when she felt a big bump and the driver yelled, Hage said she told him. She was thrown forward and lost her shoes. She curled up in a ball and tried to stay low as the driver tried to steer back onto the road but then the bus was sliding on its side, Hage said.

Tom Lindberg, a Pelican Rapids High School graduate whose brother Jan-Erik Lindberg was on the bus but unharmed, said, "this is not a good ending" to what started out as a fun week for his brother and bandmates. They had performed at the VanderCook College of Music and seen "Jersey Boys" and a performance of the Blue Man Group.

The bus, owned by Richards Transportation Service in Moorhead, was driven by Loren D. Ernst, 69, of Moorhead, the State Patrol said. Co-owner Jay Richards said the driver had joined the firm last year after spending years driving semitrailer trucks and other heavy equipment. Ernst was treated for injuries and released, the patrol said.

"He is an experienced driver," said a shaken Richards. The accident death was the first for the 30-year-old firm, he said.

The buses left Chicago at 10 p.m. Friday from a comedy club the group attended. They were traveling through the night and expected to return to Pelican Rapids at 10 a.m. Saturday, said Superintendent Deb Wanek.

The band takes an arts trip every year, she said, and "this year it was Chicago."

When asked whether the school had concerns about that schedule, Wanek said the immediate worry was about getting students to hospitals to get checked out and then home.

A rush to scene and school

Parents flocked to the high school, hospitals and the accident site, which is about a two- and-a-half-hours' drive from Pelican Rapids. Most of the students hurt in the accident had bumps and bruises but no serious life-threatening injuries, O'Connell said. All but six students were released from area hospitals by late Saturday.

Nineteen students were taken to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, and 18 were released. "They were pretty shaken up ... and were worried about everyone," O'Connell said. Some talked and cried on the phone with relatives and told siblings they were loved. "It was really sweet," O'Connell said, adding that they were scared and didn't know a lot about what happened.

Weishair and three other students were pinned during the crash. Firefighters and paramedics worked fast to free and treat patients. Weishair died at the scene, authorities said, while others were taken to hospitals in Coon Rapids, Monticello, Buffalo and Robbinsdale. One student was flown in critical condition to North Memorial in Robbinsdale, Peterson said.

An injured chaperone, Cynthia Hoyer, was later transferred to Mercy Hospital to be near her daughter, Haley, 16.

"Haley was pinned by the bus and was initially considered critical," O'Connell said. Haley, who fractured her ankle and will require surgery, was in good condition Saturday night. Cynthia Hoyer suffered a punctured lung and broken ribs, "but will be fine. She keeps saying 'I am fine,'" O'Connell said.

As the students were released from hospitals, they were brought to the St. Albert Parish Center in Albertville to be reunited with their parents and to be interviewed by the State Patrol. All students who could travel were back home by 5 p.m., school officials said.

Pelican Rapids High School Principal Glen Moerke and his wife, Colleen, began receiving phone calls at home from students and chaperones minutes after the crash, Colleen Moerke said. Glen Moerke and other officials then went to the school.

The school, which has 515 students in seventh to 12th grades, assembled administrators, teachers, counselors and clergy members, and provided a private area for parents inside the band room.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said in a statement, "The thoughts and prayers of Minnesota are with the people of Pelican Rapids, especially the family of the student whose life was lost in this accident, and we hope for a speedy recovery for those who were injured."

Saturday's accident was reminiscent of a bus crash on Oct. 16, 2005, carrying the Chippewa Falls (Wis.) High School marching band that killed four adults, including the 78 year-old bus driver, and one child. The charter bus drove into an overturned semitrailer truck at 2 a.m. near Osseo, Wis.

Staff writer John Ewoldt contributed to this report. jadams@startribune.com • 612-673-7658 ddepass@startribune.com • 612-673-7725 mckinney@startribune.com • 612-673-7329