A Calhoun County Board of Education school bus driver is listed as prohibited in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse and is stripping him of his commercial driver’s license after allegedly causing a roll-over crash that seriously injured three students on board.
FMCSA issued the Imminent Hazard Out of Service Order on Wednesday. The agency said Jeffrey Brannon, 54, “constitutes an imminent hazard to public safety.”
The incident occurred while Brannon transported 19 students home the afternoon of March 4. FMCSA said Brannon lost control of the bus at the right edge of the two-lane roadway. He overcorrected and the bus rolled onto its side in the middle of the highway. FMCSA added that onboard video surveillance shows Brannon driving erratically and swerving.
He was subsequently administered a chemical breath test at the police station and had a 0.127 blood alcohol content, over three times the legal limit for a commercial driver. He is reportedly facing 22 charges including three counts of DUI resulting in serious injury, 16 counts of gross child neglect resulting in the risk of death, and three counts of child neglect resulting in serious bodily injury.
A cash-only bond was set at $750,000.
Brannon initially blew a blood-alcohol level of 0.161 at the scene of the crash. FMCSA said a West Virginia trooper who responded to incident encountered Brannon “inside the bus yelling, screaming and acting aggressively.” The trooper then detected the smell of alcohol emanating from Brannon’s breath, at which time he admitted to consuming alcohol that day.
FMCSA said it is working with the state of West Virginia to disqualify Brannon’s CDL. Specifically, FMCSA cited Brannon’s “blatant violations of the FMCSRs and disregard for the safety of your school-age passengers and other highway users demonstrated by these actions substantially increases the likelihood of serious injury or death to you and the motoring public” when ordering him to immediately cease operating a commercial vehicle.
The Calhoun County Board of Education fired Brannon on Monday.
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