Yesterday afternoon, in Cottonwood, MN a 24 year old girl driving a van broadsided a school bus carrying 28 students home. The students ranged from kindergarten thru 12th grade, being a small town school system. The force of the impact tipped the bus on it's side, onto a pickup truck. Many of the first responders to the accident were parents or related to some of the students on the bus.

Four students were killed. Two of the dead were brothers, aged 9 and 13, I believe. Fourteen other students were injured.

Authorities are reconstructing the accident now. What is known is that the 24 year old driver HAD NO LICENSE! She should not have been on the road in the first place.

Imagine how many people were affected by this one act of selfish behavior, not to mention what she will be dealing with the rest of her life. It makes me sick.

Not to trivialize this by any means, but this happens leagues over in my neck of the woods every day. Its horrible when its breaking the law, but every diplomats 3rd uncle not to mention their staff at the embassy drive unlicensed legally here in DC where we already have ridiculous traffic and overcrowding problems to begin with. They all have diplomatic immunity or are citizens of their old homes and don't need US drivers licenses. I've been hit once by someone in the far right lane making a left turn on a 6 lane divided highway and the police couldn't do anything and their insurance didn't cover it - mine had to.

A bit of an update to this story.

Seven children remain in the hospital being treated for their injuries, but there have been no further deaths due to injuries other than the initial four.

The driver of the van is actually 23, and not 24; and, she was also arrested and paid a fine of $182 in 2006 for driving with no license. Authorities are currently investigating her immigration status, and she has been placed under arrest.

How tragic my heart goes out to the families.

Just one more reason I loathe illegal immigrants :(

I think she should have to have charges of Vehicular Manslaughter brought against her. Driving w/o a license and being a possible illegal immigrant, it could be argued her actions were premeditated.

it could be argued her actions were premeditated.

how in the hell could it? SHe didnt go out thinking she was going to get into a wreak.

She didn't "accidentally" find her self in the U.S. I'm sure...
She snuck here, purposfully, and didn't get a driver's license.

Getting into a wreck, I'm sure wasn't on her list of things to do, but if she had come here, legally, and gotten a driver's license, she probably wouldn't have caused the deaths of those children.
The training alone, in at least getting a license, could have prevented the accident.

At the very least, she was negligent.

With out the link to the article, who says she was in the country illegally? They are investigating it is all I am reading so far in the posts here.

Just heard on the radio... she's here illegally and she's been charged with vehicular homocide.

*Bows*

I hope they make an example out of her but I bet her home country will try to have her sent her home and there will be some whiny person saying but but she's a woman.

Feds charging her with identity theft as well now.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) —

Federal prosecutors filed identity theft charges on Friday against the woman accused in a school bus crash that killed four students.

Olga Marina Franco del Cid, 24, of Minneota, was already charged in state court with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide.

The new charges accuse her of giving authorities a false name and Social Security number after the crash Feb. 19, when four students were killed when a van she drove crashed into their school bus near Cottonwood in southwestern Minnesota. She was charged with two counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of false representation of a Social Security number.

This woman is, for all intents and purposes, toast.

Witness at the scene of the crash has stated she was going so fast when she ran the stop sign that when she hit the tracks before the intersection she went air-born, which accounts for the impact tipping the bus.

Immigration people are saying that they do intend to pursue deportation, but not for 15-20 years, when she will most likely be getting eligible for release from prison, if convicted of everything.

Immigration officials have searched the trailer she was living in with a number of other people, and are now pursuing evidence of whether the others were also here illegally.