By Mary Divine
Pioneer Press
COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. — Two people were injured and a house was significantly damaged when a bus crashed into a house in Columbia Heights late Friday afternoon.
Fire Chief Gary Gorman said the owner of the house was sitting in his living room around 5 p.m. Friday when the Anoka County Traveler bus, operated by First Transit, crashed into the house.
The homeowner was thrown from the home as a result of the crash. He and one of two passengers on the bus needed medical treatment, but none of the injuries were life-threatening, Gorman said.
The bus struck the gas meter outside the house in the 3900 block of Northeast Arthur Street and caused a natural gas leak, Gorman said.
“This could have been a significantly worse situation,” he said. “We’re lucky the injuries were minor. A lot of things worked in our favor.”
Gorman said the bus had been involved in a two-vehicle collision at the intersection of 40th Avenue Northeast and Arthur Street Northeast just before crashing into the house. The other vehicle “sustained substantial damage to the front end of the vehicle, but the passengers were not harmed,” Gorman said.
Most of the bus went into the southwest corner of the house. A Columbia Heights Public Works crew and two large two trucks were called to extract the bus from the house.
The public works crew used heavy equipment to lift up and hold the roof “while one of the large tow trucks worked to lift up the back end of bus and the other towed the bus out,” Gorman said.
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