Five people riding in a party bus in Cottonwood County died when the vehicle collided head-on with an SUV on March 20, according to the Minnesota State Patrol and the Star Tribune.
The Star Tribune reported that four of the people who died and at least two of the injured were related and were gathered to celebrate a birthday, and all lived in Minnesota. There were 13 total passengers in the van.
The State Patrol identified the dead as Richard Warren Johnson, 73, and Kathleen Ann Johnson, 73, both of Jackson, and their daughters, Kelly Christine Hargus, 49, of Jackson, and Lindsey Kay Rossow, 47, of Lakefield.
The state patrol told the Star Tribune that the van outfitted as a party bus was typically manufactured with seat belts, but there were none on the vehicle at the time of the crash.
The SUV’s driver, Martin Nickolas Hanson, 67, of Springfield, Minn., had “no driver’s license from any state,” Patrol Sgt. Troy Christianson told the Star Tribune.
Hanson died at the scene, according to the State Patrol.
The crash is the deadliest in Minnesota since June 2023, according to the Star Tribune, when five young women in a car were killed on E. Lake Street by a speeding SUV driver who had just exited Interstate 35W.
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