A central Iowa woman and her children, ages 5 and 8, were injured during a single vehicle rollover accident Tuesday evening, 5-miles southeast of Exira. The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reports the driver of the car, 40-year old Sheri Lynn Erickson, and her passengers, eight-years old Ethan and Caleb, and five-year old Jacob, all from Johnston, were transported to the Audubon County Hospital by Exira Rescue following the crash at around 5:30-p.m., Tuesday.

Officials say Erickson was traveling north on Littlefield Drive in a 2003 Land Rover, when she drove the SUV onto the shoulder, and overcorrected in an attempt to get back on the highway. The SUV slide sideways across the road and entered a ditch, where it spun and rolled over, coming to rest on its top. The vehicle sustained $15,000 damage.

Erickson was charged with Failure to Maintain Control.

(story 1st aired at 12-p.m. Wed.)

An Atlantic man was appointed this week to a task force which will study whether Iowa’s public schools should lengthen the school day and make other changes to their calendars. Frank Spillers, with Global Horizons in Atlantic, was named as one of the 16 individuals appointed by Iowa Department of Education Director Jason Glass, Tuesday, to the Instructional Time Task Force, which was created by lawmakers as part of their education reform law.

The committee will study whether the minimum length of the school day and year should be extended for some students or all students and whether schools should have a uniform start date. The group will also consider whether summer break should be shortened, with days off spread out throughout the year. Glass says time in school should be applied differently to students based on their individual needs, but that adding time should be carefully studied because of its expense.

Dive Team members from southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa conducted a search Tuesday for a Council Bluffs man missing since he jumped out of a boat into Hanson Lake Sunday morning. They recovered the man’s body Tuesday evening, not far from where he jumped in. The body of 34-year old Michael Hartsook, was discovered at around 7:30-p.m.  An autopsy has been scheduled. Officials say the lake will be open today (Wednesday). 

Dive teams from Red Oak, Clarinda, Adams, Cass and Ringgold Counties, participated in the search, scouring more than 12,000 square feet of the lake, which is located in Sarpy County, NE.