Drunk School Bus Driver
By gewcew23
@gewcew23 (8007)
United States
March 17, 2010 12:41pm CST
Betty Burden was a school bus driver for the Mount Prospect Elementary District in Illinois. One day after transporting a load of children back to their homes she was pulled over by the police. She fail her field sobriety test, and when she was taken to the police station her blood-alcohol test registered to the tune of .226. That sounds bad on its on matter, but alcohol could be smelt on her before she stated her route. The school district did report Burden to the police yet the police waited until after she had delivered all of her passengers.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=364987
3 people like this
10 responses
@artsyfartsygypsy (755)
• Canada
17 Mar 10
I heard about this on the radio! I dont think she should be given a second chance. s soon as she was pulled over she should have lost her license permenatly , her job and hpefully her pride and dignity. Driving drunk in teh first place is bad; driving drunk while working, while driving other people, driving kids, and driving other peoples children...is so wrong that I dont even know how to compose myself into writing the wods to explain how I feel about this.
They should not ahve waited until she delivered all her passengers!!! Thats a danger and the police should be more responsible than that.
My question for her would be why was she drunka dn what was she thinking!?
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
17 Mar 10
I think that she will have lost her licence and will certainly never drive school buses again. I believe that the officer who made the decision to let her continue did so based on his perception of her actual ability to drive safely at the time. I expect (though the story doesn't say so) that she was allowed to continue only on condition that she knew she was being followed and observed by the police, that the safety of her passengers was paramount and that she would certainly be tested and charged accordingly on the basis of the tests.
If the officer had stuck to the letter of the law, 50 children would have been VERY late getting home and nearly as many families would have been very anxious about that. I know how I would have felt if one of those had been my child. Better for all (if at all possible) to let the journey proceed as normal and to let the real story come out later and for the law to be applied properly.
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
17 Mar 10
I would much rather the kids be late getting home because it took them time to get a replacement driver...or called to have the kids picked up from the school...than them putting those kids on a bus with a woman that was drunk. There is NO excuse or her actions. But there is also no excuse for the school's and the police's actions. They never should have put those kids in that kind of danger.
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
17 Mar 10
Why in the world did the SCHOOL or the COPS let her near that bus full of kids if she was drunk...or even suspected of being drunk?
Kids could have gotten hurt...or killed. If I was a parent with a kid on that bus I would be talking with someone about charging all of them with child endangerment.
1 person likes this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
18 Mar 10
I can tell you one thing...if it were my kids...and the school had allowed that driver on that bus even though they thought she might be drunk..there would be HELL and I mean BIG TIME HELL to pay. Same for the cop that decided to wait until she was done with her route. Me and his boss would be having a real big discussion on his decision making skills.
YOu don't endanger kids like that. YOu just don't. You don't take that kind of a chance.
Irresponsible is an understatement here. On the drivers part, the schools part and the cops part.
@kaylachan (69776)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
17 Mar 10
Sounds about right. It would have inconvenanced them to do the right thing and report the woman. That would mean everyone on her route would be late because they would have to go through the trouble of finding another driver.
1 person likes this
@Fastlane1 (77)
• United States
18 Mar 10
Of course, She won't be celebrating any time soon, but this will definitely teach her a life lesson for being negligent. If you think about it, She could've killed those chilren.
@Fastlane1 (77)
• United States
17 Mar 10
This is just too irresponsible on her part. This woman should put behind bars for risking those kids' lives. I definitely think that there should be stricter standards against negligent bus drives like this. I know it won't solve the problem, but it will reduce all these kind of incidents significantly.
1 person likes this
@mr_pearl (5018)
• India
18 Mar 10
Jeez! This is awful.. How and why did the police allow her to deliver all the passengers? The passengers were kids only, who couldn't protect themselves in case of emergency. This is one of the most weird incidents that I have heard about! The world is full of strange happenings and they are getting stranger every moment... May God help us!
@Qaeyious (2357)
• United States
18 Mar 10
My mother was a school bus driver in California, and she told me it doesn't have to be drunk driving. Any kind of vehicle infraction could get you booted.
And in this case, as already noted, the failures go all around. I really wonder about the supervisor at the first stop though. Maybe the kids all stunk so bad? Or maybe the bus.
I hope the driver gets the help she needs to correct her activities.
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
18 Mar 10
Obviously the woman has a problem but bigger than that is the police that waited until she delivered all of the children before arresting her. Glad that it all ended well but that was a huge risk. I'm sure they were trying to avoid arresting her in front of the children but that route would be less traumatic than an accident where kids are seriously hurt or worse.
