Charges in fatal bus crash filed against driver
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Criminal charges have been filed against the driver of a tour bus that ran off a Wright County highway and crashed, killing one of the high school students on board.
69-year-old Loren Ernst, of Moorhead, is charged with criminal vehicular homicide, in the April crash near Albertville.
"He has admitted he may have possibly dozed off at the time of the crash. And the Minnesota State Patrol determined that the defendant was fatigued to the extent that he fell asleep as his bus was traveling on I-94 at county road 137, causing it to leave the roadway and crash into the ditch," said Mark Peterson, a Minnesota State Patrol lieutenant.
The driver of a second bus told investigators Ernst had complained of feeling fatigued, and had drifted over the fog line a couple times.
The charter bus carrying Pelican Rapids High School band students, who were heading home from a trip to Chicago.
Sixteen-year-old sophomore Jessica Weishair of Barnesville, was killed, and dozens of others were injured.
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