A 61-year-old bus driver in Texas is now under investigation after she was detained for drunk driving. Officers claim the woman admitted to taking up to nine medications on a daily basis. However, the school district claims to have no knowledge of her prescription medications on record. Someone who gave the keys to the driver on the day of the crash stated that the woman appeared to be focused and coherent during the time before the incident.
Even though employees are required to disclose information about prescription drugs that could affect performance, employees are responsible for using their own discretion to ascertain whether or not the information provided by the physician indicates if job performance will be affected. The arrest warrant states that the woman admitted to police officers that she had consumed alcohol mixed with anti-depressants and painkillers the night before the arrest.
Officials from the school district claim that the woman passed a random drug test during February 2014. The district randomly drug tests 50 percent of the drivers who possess commercial licenses. District officials remain confident in the strength of their training protocols but admitted that the recent incident might be cause for re-evaluating their procedures.
Legal counsel might be able to review the facts of a case and begin constructing a viable DWI defense against the charges being filed by prosecutors. If a lawyer can uncover and expose some degree of unlawfulness or misconduct on behalf of the police or prosecution team, a judge may possibly dismiss the case, reduce the charges or choose more lenient sentencing.
Source: KXAN, “Leander ISD: Bus driver arrested for DWI did not report meds“, Kevin Schwaller, November 19, 2014