Police on Saturday identified the 26-year-old driver who smashed into a Metro Transit bus Friday evening in St. Paul, slicing through it and leaving one bus rider dead.
Tyler Randall Bjelland of Minneapolis was arrested on suspicion of criminal vehicular homicide. He remains hospitalized from leg injuries and showed "preliminary signs of impairment," according to a St. Paul police tweet.
Police also identified the man killed in the crash as Kenneth J. Foster, 48, of Minneapolis.
Bjelland has been convicted of other crimes, including theft and disorderly conduct, according to court records. He was currently serving probation after being convicted of failing to take a DWI test in 2016, the conditions of which included no reckless driving. Formal charges against Bjelland are expected Monday, police spokesman Steve Linders said.
The crash, described by Linders as "horrific and surreal," also injured a 19-year-old male bus passenger from St. Paul. He underwent surgery Friday night and remained in critical condition Saturday evening.
The area where the crash occurred, at the intersection of Dale Street N. and Charles Avenue, was cleared by 11:30 p.m. Friday, Linders said.
Bjelland was driving a white sedan about 7:30 p.m. in St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood, fleeing the scene of a minor crash, according to police. The car ran a stop sign, hit a median and went airborne, slamming into a northbound bus at up to 70 miles per hour, witnesses said.
The force of the crash sliced open the bus, which was carrying six to eight people, according to police. Foster was thrown from the bus and later died at the scene.
Bjelland had to be extricated from the vehicle.
Reacting to the crash, authorities with more than 25 years of experience responding to transit emergencies said they had never seen anything like it. "It shook all of us to the core," Metro Transit spokesman Howie Padilla said Friday.
The bus driver had 39 years of experience.
Staff writers Mila Koumpilova, Beatrice Dupuy and Pamela Miller contributed to this report.
