Things are slowly getting back to normal for students and others involved in a school bus crash on the Range last week.

According to students, the bus driver has returned to his route.

Some students, like Mackenzie Haapala, aren’t quite ready to get on board yet. The 4th grader has a broken collarbone, according to her parents. “She’s sore, but she’s doing alright,” Matt Haapala shared.

She and 19 other kids who attend Cherry were on the bus when authorities said it was hit by an SUV last Thursday morning. This was at the intersection of Townline Road and Highway 5.

Haapala said they heard about the crash through a post on Facebook, and rushed to the scene. “We were freaking out because we couldn’t find her. She was already on an ambulance. The first responders were just so exceptional.”

Police said 10 students ended up being transported by ambulance to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries. The driver of the SUV was hospitalized, but as of Wednesday is not listed in the hospital directory. Her condition had been improving.

Cayman Hill, a junior at Cherry, was driving herself to school that day and came upon the scene. “I saw the bus flipped on its side, and then kids getting out. I called my mom cause she works at the school and said, Shawn’s bus has been in an accident, and it’s really bad.”

She was in a school bus crash at that same intersection nearly 10 years ago, on January 20th, 2015.

Families got an update from the Minnesota State Patrol on Wednesday at the school. But the patrol declined to release further details to WDIO.

The Cherry School community has really pulled together, according to Cayman’s mom, Gina. “I love how everyone really supports each other,” she said.

Haapala was hoping a change could be made at the intersection. And there are safety improvements coming.

St. Louis County released information about crashes at the intersection. They said there have been 7 since 2014, not including the one from last week. So now there have been 8 in 10 years.

St. Louis County is an active participant of the Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths initiative.

In light of what happened, they are:

1. Adding blinking stop signs.
2. Adding “Cross traffic does not stop” plaques under those signs.
3. Adding additional stop ahead warning signs.

Additionally, in the longer term, St. Louis County will initiate an Intersection Control Evaluation (ICE) study of the intersection to develop short term and long term safety countermeasures. The ICE report will be used for future funding requests for the recommended safety improvements.