MADISON -- A school bus driver and a 17-year-old student suffered minor injuries Wednesday morning while nine other students escaped injury when a Lac qui Parle Valley school bus left a rural highway.
Bus driver Leonard Meyer, 70, of Appleton, was treated at the Appleton Hospital and student passenger Kristen Schliep, 17, of Holloway, was treated at the Stevens Community Hospital in Morris, both for minor injuries, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.
State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske told the Associated Press that a medical condition may have resulted in the driver going into a field about 7:30 a.m. at U.S. Highways 12 and 59.
The bus was eastbound on Highway 12 when it went into the oncoming lane, overcorrected, and ran off the road about 15 miles west of Benson, according to the State Patrol.
Students on the bus were checked by emergency medical technicians at the scene. The students boarded another bus and were transported to the Lac qui Parle Valley High School in rural Madison.
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School Nurse Renaee Schreck also checked each student and their parents were contacted about the accident, according to Renae Tostenson, a school administrator who will be the district's superintendent at the start of the new year.
Tostenson told the Tribune that the students were doing well and all immediately began their normal school schedules. A number of the students were slated for physical education classes in the high school's indoor pool, and were eager to get to school, she added.
Tostenson said the school feels very fortunate that no serious injuries were suffered.
