Showing that no one is above joining the Star Wars bandwagon, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is teaming up with state and local law enforcement for some Yuletide reminders that driving under the influence will land people in the paddy wagon.
The campaign, titled “Driver Sober or Get Pulled Over,” is a holiday crackdown on intoxicated revelers who get behind the wheel. The enforcement runs from Dec. 16 to Jan. 2. To further enhance this message, viewers of Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be treated to fresh promotional ads that show the dangers of drunk driving that will be shown before the start of this highly anticipated film.
To prove why these public service announcements are necessary, especially around the holidays, a Napa Valley, California, bus driver was arrested on suspicion of operating the bus drunk after rendering the bus “high-centered” as she attempted to make a U-turn. Police smelled alcohol on the driver’s breath. While the bus was packed with children, no one was harmed during the incident and a backup bus was sent to transport the students to their destination.
In a hoax that arguably fooled no one but the Los Angeles Unified School District, parents are still on edge about sending their children to school the next day after classrooms throughout the city were shut down amidst terrorism concerns. While no one is overtly criticizing the LAUSD’s reaction as brash, area parents are taking extra precautions when dropping off their children, some going as far as to not allow them on school buses for fear of potential attacks on the soft targets.
While many parents supported closing the schools, others said they believe everyone needs to move on now that the threat has been debunked. “You can’t live in a bubble,” said one parent.
The email threat was sent to school administrators in Los Angeles and New York City on Wednesday, but only forced the closure of LA schools, displacing roughly 640,000 students. Similar threats were sent to Houston ISD, Miami-Dade County Public Schools and Broward County Public Schools, but classes and school bus runs in these locations were not interrupted.
For years, bus drivers in Indiana were supported during the summer downtime with unemployment insurance benefits. It stood to reason that the lack of work was not their fault. In 2011, all that changed when lawmakers classified summer layoffs as vacation, thus declaring bus drivers ineligible for government assistance; however, through a bureaucratic snafu, the Department of Workforce Development continued to pay benefits to hundreds, if not thousands of bus drivers across the Hoosier State.
With the error rectified, the Indiana government is demanding that those paid in mistake need to refund their disbursements, with drivers being issued bills for $1,500 to $3,000. Now those drivers are taking the DWD to court to protest these rules that hurt drivers in more ways than simply their bank accounts.
Police arrested an Indiana school bus driver on accusations of exchanging nude photos with a 15-year-old girl and is now behind bars. The driver was detained on possession of child pornography and sexual misconduct with a minor. He had been off bus routes for the last month as school officials learned of the investigation by Hoosier police. “You’re always shocked, disappointed, you’re horrified,” said one school official.
The suspect was driving for the school district for two years with no complaints and a cleared state and federal background checks. Court documents stated that the girl is a student and knew the driver through friends. The driver and the 15-year-old exchanged nude photos over the course of three months, with the student using a school-issued iPad for the inappropriate communication.
