Distracted M Health ambulance driver crashes on I‑35

The Minnesota State Patrol says a 22‑year‑old M Health Fairview ambulance driver, Joshua Pusch, was distracted when he veered off I‑35 in Forest Lake on Wednesday and slammed into a stalled pickup truck on the shoulder, in a crash captured on MnDOT traffic cameras. The impact shoved the truck through a guardrail and spun the ambulance into fast‑moving traffic, but the 18‑year‑old woman in the truck and the two people in the ambulance escaped without serious injuries and did not require hospital transport. Troopers cited Pusch and concluded distraction was a contributing factor, though the citation notes he refused to specify what pulled his attention off the road. M Health Fairview says it is reviewing the incident and emphasized its focus on community and staff safety, but so far has offered no explanation for how an emergency vehicle ends up plowing into a clearly stopped truck on the shoulder. The footage is already circulating online as a textbook example of why shoulder stops are so dangerous on busy interstates and how even professional drivers aren’t immune to distraction.