HUGO, Minn. – Two people were killed Thursday when a minivan rear-ended a Forest Lake Area Schools bus carrying 11 students, officials said.
The two people who died were in the minivan — a contracted school vehicle — and were identified as a 30-year-old man and an adolescent girl, according to Washington County Sheriff Bill Hutton. Their names weren't immediately released.
None of the students on the bus were injured, though the bus driver was slightly injured and taken to Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater.
The bus had stopped around 3 p.m. to let a student off when it was struck, said Andrea Lundstrom, 15, a Forest Lake Area High School sophomore who was on board the bus. Lundstrom was sitting toward the back of the bus when she said she heard what sounded like a tire pop.
"It didn't seem like anything big had happened," Lundstrom said. "I looked back and could see the back part of the bus had been dented in. The whole front part of the van was completely under the bus. We figured they had to be dead."
The students were released to their parents, district spokeswoman Carissa Fredrickson said.
The crash happened near Hugo, near the intersection of Washington County Road 4 and May Avenue.
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