Tuesday: Scandia student's driver had drugs in, with him

When 14-year-old Amanda Berglund rode home from school in May, the man hired to drive the van she was in had marijuana in his system and in the van, Washington County authorities said Tuesday.

Scott D. Wendt, 30, was driving Berglund to her home in Scandia on the afternoon of May 17 when the van slammed into the back of the Forest Lake school bus, killing them both.

Her parents have vowed to lobby for stronger laws overseeing van drivers.

"You don't smoke pot when you are driving or when you are driving children around. He shouldn't have been doing that. There shouldn't have been any in his system," said Bill Berglund. "My daughter had to die to change a law that should have been changed a long time ago."

The company that hired Wendt has made changes since the crash and has pledged to help the Berglunds in their efforts to strengthen the law.

A pipe and a two-day-old speeding ticket also were found in the van, police reports said. The ticket was issued to Wendt by St. Paul police for driving the same Dodge Caravan about 17 miles over the 30 mile-per-hour speed limit about 9 a.m. on May 15, two days before the crash.

Washington County Capt. Patrick Olson would not disclose how much marijuana was found in Wendt's system because of state data privacy rules. State records show he had five speeding tickets between 1997 and 2002.

Karen and Bill Berglund, who have two younger children in school, said they were surprised to learn that van drivers hired to transport students don't have to meet the same standards and training requirements as school bus drivers. Bill Berglund said their attorney, Mike Seiben, is helping the couple write a letter to legislators asking for stronger credentials for van drivers who carry students.

Karen Berglund said she fell down and was sick to her stomach when she heard about the marijuana.

"None of us knew what happened," she said. "To not see a bus and not stop, we knew something was wrong."

Wendt, of Oak Park Heights, worked as a driver for Twin City Transportation, which was hired to carry students for the Forest Lake Area School District. As required by law, the company checked his driving record for the previous three years before they hired him, company attorney Mike Weidner said Tuesday. He had no blemishes on his record after he was hired, Weidner said.

The company was shocked to learn of the marijuana use, which "is absolutely against company policy," he said.

Weidner said the company is working with the family to require van drivers to meet the same requirements as school bus drivers, which the company began doing after the crash.

The company now also requires van drivers to disclose any speeding tickets. It also checks the status of their drivers' licenses twice a month.

Because Wendt was driving a minivan, he wasn't required to have a commercial license with the more rigorous school bus endorsement. But even if he had a commercial license, he wouldn't have run afoul of state regulations. A school bus driver's license would be renewed unless he or she had four moving violations in the past four years.

Berglund said he was also upset to learn that the driver of the school bus rear-ended by Wendt had stopped that day at an unapproved spot. The driver, Daryl G. Eastman, 58, of Lindstrom, and students on the bus had no major injuries.

Susan Harris, a spokeswoman for the Washington County attorney's office, said Eastman was tagged for violating bus operation rules. He pleaded guilty to a petty misdemeanor and paid fines and fees totaling $182.

Bill Berglund said it was particularly hard to learn after the crash that Amanda had told her friends that Wendt had been speeding and weaving in and out of traffic while carrying her to or from school in St. Paul, which she attended because she was hearing-impaired.

"It was really hard for us to deal with this," he said.

Jim Adams • 612-673-7658

Jim Adams • jadams@startribune.com