An off-duty St. Cloud, Minn., police officer was in grave condition Friday after his pickup truck crashed into the back of a Mississippi Valley Transit Authority bus on Monday night in Apple Valley.
Law enforcement reported that alcohol was involved, though St. Cloud Police Chief Jeffrey Oxton disputed whether it contributed to the crash.
The MVTA bus and the Ram pickup driven by Ryan Matthew Ebert, 44, of Big Lake, were traveling northbound on Minnesota 77/Cedar Avenue when the truck collided with the back of the bus and a cable barrier just before 10 p.m. Monday, according to a Minnesota State Patrol report.
Ebert suffered “injuries that are not survivable,” friend Tonya Eggers wrote on a GoFundMe campaign she started for Ebert’s children, who are 17 and 18.
“His family is now navigating a time filled with unexpected and overwhelming challenges,” Eggers wrote. “As a devoted father, Ryan’s greatest priority has always been the well-being of his children.”
Ebert was taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. He was not wearing a seat belt and an airbag deployed at the time of the crash, the State Patrol said.
The agency said in a report that Ebert’s alcohol use was a factor in the crash.
“It is important that it be known that toxicology from blood samples taken by medical staff upon Ryan’s arrival at the hospital indicate that he had a very small or trace-amount of alcohol in his system, significantly below that which would ever lead to a person being considered impaired or driving under the influence,” St. Cloud Police Chief Jeffrey Oxton said in a written statement issued Friday.
The State Patrol did not have access to Ebert’s medical records, and his family authorized their use and release for the St. Cloud Police Department statement, said Oxton, adding that news coverage of the crash may be misleading.
“Unfortunately, without all the information being known, the preliminary details being disseminated in some media coverage may lead one to assume otherwise,” Oxton said.
The driver of the bus, Phillip Alan Wright, 65, of Apple Valley, wore a seat belt and suffered minor injuries, the State Patrol said.
Ebert has been an officer with the St. Cloud Police Department since 2006, according to state licensing records. He worked as an investigator and a patrol officer, Oxton said.
“Our department is devastated by this news,” the chief said. “For all of us devastated by this tragic accident, it is important that the cause of the accident not be judged prematurely, before the final State Patrol Investigation is complete and all the information is known and available.”
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