Minn. bus driver accepts plea deal in fatal crash
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A Moorhead tour bus driver has reached a plea deal in a 2008 crash that killed a Minnesota high school band student on Interstate 94.
Loren Ernst, 71, accepted the plea deal Monday as he was about to go on trial.
Ernst was facing two felonies. Instead, he pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor of criminal vehicular operation. Charges of criminal vehicular injury and criminal vehicular homicide were dismissed.
Under the agreement, Ernst faces no more than 30 days in jail.
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Prosecutor Brian Lutes says the parents of Jessica Weishair, the 16-year-old from Pelican Rapids who died in the crash, signed off on the deal.
Weishair was killed when the bus went off I-94 and crashed in Albertville.
Investigators say Ernst was too tired to be driving that morning.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
