Update: 16-year-old dies after car collides with school bus near Adams
Published 3:53 pm Wednesday, February 27, 2013
A Buick Century sits in the south ditch of Highway 56 just past the intersection with County Road 5 after colliding with the above bus Wednesday afternoon. The 16-year-old driver of the car died. Children on the bus had minor injuries. Eric Johnson/photodesk@dailyherald.com
ADAMS — A 16-year-old girl from Rose Creek died and her 15-year-old friend was severely injured Wednesday afternoon when their car collided with a Southland school bus near Adams.
Tess Landherr, listed as the driver, died after her Buick Century reportedly spun out in icy conditions and struck the bus in the front end, according to the Mower County Sheriff’s Office.
Landherr and the passenger, Anna Bruggeman, both Southland high-schoolers, were transported to the hospital in Austin before being taken by ambulance to St. Marys Hospital in Rochester. The Minnesota State Patrol did not detail the extent of Bruggeman’s injuries. Both girls were wearing their seatbelts, the report added.
Southland Superintendent Steve Sallee said there were 47 children on the bus, and an 8-year-old student sustained a head injury but was released from the hospital Wednesday night.
“That student is going to be OK,” Sallee said.
No other students were seriously hurt, Sallee added. The State Patrol lists the bus driver as 41-year-old Kim Bissen of Rose Creek. Sallee said she was OK, as well.
Officers blocked a large portion of Highway 56 near County Road 5 after the crash at 3:19 p.m. and remained there until late afternoon. Landherr and Bruggeman were traveling northbound on Highway 56 while the bus was traveling south, and the car spun out and hit the front end of the bus, according to the State Patrol. Several Mower County sheriff’s deputies and ambulances responded to the crash.
The Southland Public Schools principal, superintendent and other school officials quickly tried to notify parents of every student on the bus. Sallee said grief counselors from Grand Meadow and Lyle school districts will be at Southland Schools throughout the day, along with Austin Public Schools’ entire crisis team.
“It’s just going to be a day of mourning here,” Sallee said. “And we’ve got as much help here as we can for students.”
This was the first of two fatal crashes in Mower County on Wednesday. In the later accident, a 22-year-old died and two Austin teens suffered minor injuries on Interstate 90.
—Adam Harringa contributed to this report.
