Students hurt when pickup smashes into school bus
<p>Three students were injured when a pickup truck rammed into the rear of a stopped school bus Monday afternoon on Montana 35 east of Polson. The pickup driver was arrested and taken into custody in Lake County. (Trip Burns/Lake County Leader)</p>
Several students were injured — none seriously — when a pickup truck driving at 78 mph slammed into the back of a school bus near Polson on Monday afternoon.
The driver, Daniel G. Fellows, 19, of Bigfork was arrested and charged with three counts of felony criminal endangerment.
The crash occurred at about 4:15 p.m. Monday about three miles east of Polson on Montana 35.
One student was getting off the stopped Polson School District bus when it was struck. The student was thrown several feet, Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Terry Rosenbaum said.
Rosenbaum said 10 or 11 students were transported to local hospitals for treatment.
Witnesses said the students were of elementary-school age. Three were transported by ambulance while the other students were taken by private vehicle on the recommendation of school district personnel.
All students were treated and released within a few hours, Rosenbaum said.
Fellows was taken to St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula where he was treated and released, then cited with three counts of felony criminal endangerment, Rosenbaum said.
Alcohol is a factor in the crash but toxicology reports are not complete, Rosenbaum said.
Rosenbaum said Fellows admitted he was traveling with his cruise control set at 78 miles per hour when he hit the bus.
Fellows appeared by video Tuesday afternoon before Lake County Justice Randal Owens.
Owens assigned a public defender, explained the charges and set bond for Fellows at $10,000. He also ordered Fellows to wear an alcohol tracking device.
About 30 minutes before Monday’s crash, motorists driving northbound on U.S. 93 near St. Ignatius began calling emergency dispatchers to inform law enforcement that a reckless driver in a white Chevy truck was traveling at a high rate of speed, making dangerous passes and nearly forcing vehicles off the road, Rosenbaum said.
That driver was later spotted illegally passing a stopped Polson School District bus — also unloading students — about a mile north of the U.S. 93 and Montana 35 intersection.
After the crash occurred, investigators learned that Fellows apparently was the reckless driver as well as the driver who rear-ended the stopped school bus, Rosenbaum said.
Lake County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Eschenbacher said Fellows was within seconds of killing a student getting off the first bus.
If convicted, Fellows faces up to 10 years in jail and a $50,000 for each charge.