A Metrolink bus, a postal truck and a minivan were involved in a crash Wednesday morning near the St. Thomas Minneapolis campus, with the drivers and some bus passengers suffering apparent injuries. Mail from the postal truck was scattered near the corner of South 12th Street and Harmon Place.
Police and emergency vehicles were on the scene. Witnesses saw bus passengers being evacuated on stretchers through bus windows.
Video courtesy of Michael Gaytko
St. Thomas law student Michael Gaytko heard the crash from the campus library and ran to a window.
“The bus had come and hit a mail van, and all the mail was blown out,” Gaytko said. “It took out everything on the side of the road, the parking posts, it took out a lamp post. It was crazy.”
Gaytko took a brief video of the scene. He said emergency workers could not get the bus door open because a highway construction sign had gone through the windshield.
“So everyone was climbing out the windows,” Gaytko said, “and it looked like everyone was OK.
“Ambulances started coming, and they carried a couple people out of the bus on stretchers. They were putting the neck braces on people and carrying them away in ambulances.”
WCCO-TV reported that all three drivers and eight to ten passengers were taken to North Memorial or Hennepin County Medical Center for treatment. No one with St. Thomas was involved and there were no damages to St. Thomas property, said Jim Winterer, St. Thomas media relations director.