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Accidents involving teen drivers are far too common, and every year, schools around the nation deal with losing a classmate far too soon. Such is the case for the Woodbury area after a fatal crash involving five teens occurred on Saturday, March 13th.

At 11:08 P.M. on 3/13/21 Woodbury Public Safety was dispatched to a single vehicle accident that occurred on Settler’s Ridge Pkwy near Sundance Way. Residents nearby phoned 911, reporting what sounded like a crash. Subsequent 911 callers reported a single vehicle crashed, with several occupants.

Responders began arriving at 11:11 P.M. and began triaging five patients involved in the crash. The 2015 Honda Accord involved was severely damaged- split in half after striking a tree. One patient, Garrett Bumgarner, was ejected from the vehicle and sadly, he died at the scene of the crash. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office will provide further details when available.

The remaining four were still inside the vehicle and were extricated by responders. The other vehicle occupants are identified as Connor Bro, Jack Mears, and Andrew McKevitt. These three boys were treated and transported by Woodbury EMS and Cottage Grove EMS. They have received care at Regions Hospital for a myriad of injuries; conditions are serious, but stable. While data practice law states that the aforementioned names are public information, data practices law prohibits the release of the name of the driver at this time.

Minnesota State Patrol is conducting a crash reconstruction. Woodbury Public Safety is grateful for the assistance from Cottage Grove Fire/EMS, Minnesota State Patrol, Oakdale Police, and Cottage Grove Police.

A heartfelt message from Woodbury Public Safety was part of their social media post with updates to the accident. “As stated yesterday [3/14/21] on social media – there are many people that have a lot of emotion to process: moms, dads, siblings, grandparents, extended families, friends, classmates, neighbors, responders – the entire Woodbury community, really. A thorough investigation into a crash such as this takes time. Here at Woodbury Public Safety, our hearts are heavy for all involved and affected by this tragedy.”