Picture + Details Shared of Accident Involving School Bus Near Duluth
When news broke the evening of Tuesday, November 30 that there had been a bad accident on Highway 53 near Duluth involving a school bus that had been t-boned by a van, the Northland was filled with concern.
That concern grew even stronger when it was revealed that a life link helicopter was spotted at the scene along with what seemed like countless first responders. Thankfully, as updates about the accident arrived, they were filled with good news.
While it was a serious accident, which did involve the extrication of the van driver and a life flight to Essentia, the driver ultimately suffered non-life threatening injuries. More great news arrived regarding the four children on the school bus and the bus driver as none of them suffered injuries.
That is certainly fantastic news, but news like that can only arrive when you have amazing professionals working together to save lives.
This includes the St. Louis County Rescue Squad, who shared a post-extrication picture of the van involved as well as an update of all the effort that went into to responding to the crash scene.
Here's what the van, a Dodge Roadmaster, looked like post-extrication and a portion of the update from the St. Louis County Rescue Squad Facebook page.
First...props, kudos, and many thanks to Grand Lake Fire-Rescue, Mayo Ambulance, North Air Care 7, Sheriff's Deputies, MSP Troopers, 911-Dispatchers, North Country Towing, and the various unaffiliated individuals who helped to make this tremendously chaotic scene more safe, smooth, and orderly.
We rolled nine trucks and fourteen personnel. Grand Lake rolled a huge contingent. Mayo rolled a first-out rig plus support resources knowing a bus was involved. Deputies quickly established a detour down Old 53. North's 7-ship wasted no time getting there and getting on the ground. It's not often you have this many people on-scene, and everyone has a meaningful task to perform...medical, extrication, traffic control, landing zone, reunification of kids with parents, reconstruction and investigation.
They added that the accident occurred on dry pavement and that both vehicles were traveling at legal highway speeds. Despite unfair rumors to the contrary, snowplow and grader operators were not the cause of this accident.
Furthermore, seatbelts and airbags were what prevented any fatalities and they remind everyone to buckle up.
Thank you to all of our first responders who are standing by 24/7 and who often don't receive the recognition they deserve.
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