A Washington, D.C. bus driver has been arrested for drunk driving after a traffic accident that left nine students with minor injuries during a school field trip.
Troy Reynolds, 48, of Maryland was driving back to Murch Elementary School from a field trip to Cox Farms in Centreville, Va. with a bus full of 44 children and four adults when he veered off the road into a ditch.
Fairfax County Police Department released a statement, “The bus struck a rock after veering off the road, causing the rear tire to flatten and the rim to bend. Reynolds continued to drive until adults on the bus urged him to stop in a parking lot with another bus from the same school.”
Officers from the Sully District Station and Fairfax County Fire and Rescue responded to the scene, where nine children were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Reynolds failed a field sobriety test and was taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, where he was found to allegedly have a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .20, more than twice Virginia’s legal limit of .08.
He was held with no bond and charged Thursday with a second-degree DWI with a child aged 5-10, commercial DWI with child endangerment and nine counts of gross, wanton or reckless care for a child.
Reynolds’ license was allegedly found to be revoked in Virginia from a prior DWI and suspended in Maryland, in addition to being allegedly found with a fraudulent medical card.
FCPD’s Motor Carrier Safety (MCS) unit also responded to the scene and found that neither of the drivers was properly licensed to operate a school bus. MCS also documented a total of 18 safety violations on the two buses, and a third bus that responded to replace the damaged bus was also taken out of service for safety violations.
DC Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee shared a statement Thursday on Twitter: “We thank the Murch Elementary teachers and staff who ensured the students’ safety on their field trip today. All children were evaluated by emergency medical services following the incident and there are no injuries reported.
“We appreciate the support of Fairfax County law enforcement, who welcomed students at a nearby training facility as they awaited transportation back to the school. DCPS takes this incident very seriously, and our teams will do a thorough review of our transportation vendors to ensure that student safety is always prioritized. We are incredibly thankful that no one sustained injuries during this frightening incident,” Ferebee added.
Just another SFN. He is lucky nobody was killed.
100%
The adults not know he was impaired?
I guess no one bothers with background checks for the people in charge of children in public schools as evidenced by this and all the nut job teachers on Tik Tok. At the very least they should have looked at his DL and searched it for tickets and seen it was the wrong class for driving a bus. WTH 🤦♀️
Donnie T is an IDIOT. I told him that taking a couple sips of pickle juice will stop his acid reflux. He drinks 3 gallons of pickle juice and blames me for not following my simple instructions. What a STUPID MORON.