4 BHS students hurt in highway crash

Four Bonduel High School students were taken to the hospital Wednesday after their vehicle was rear-ended by another motorist south of town, officials said.

The students were transported to St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay, but a Shawano County sheriff’s deputy said it appeared that none of them suffered life-threatening injuries.

Bonduel School District Administrator Patrick Rau said the students — two boys and two girls — were returning to campus from an FFA activity off-campus when the incident occurred about 2:15 p.m.

According to witnesses and officials, the students were traveling north on state Highway 47 when they stopped behind a tractor and got rear-ended just north of Landstad Road in the town of Lessor.

Rau said all of the students’ parents had been notified.

The 19-year-old driver of the other vehicle, who escaped injury and had no passengers, said at the scene that he was traveling about 50 mph when he looked down momentarily to check his vehicle’s air-conditioning. Looking up, he realized traffic ahead of him had stopped, but he was unable to avoid a collision.

“I swerved, and I just clipped them a little bit,” he said.

The driver, whose vehicle landed in a ditch, is not being identified because authorities were still investigating the incident and had not issued any citations.

Shawano County Deputy Bruce Leiser said the Bonduel students were traveling in a Ford Explorer SUV when they stopped to allow a tractor to turn off the road. The other vehicle, a Jeep SUV, slammed into the Explorer from behind and briefly caught fire.

Leiser said the students, as well as the other driver, appear to have been wearing seat belts. Otherwise, the injuries could have been much worse, he said.

“They all got lucky,” he said.

Traffic on Highway 47 was blocked in both directions for more than an hour.