The New York Senate’s Transportation Committee amended bill S5503 and sent it to the Finance Committee. The measure would greatly expand random drug and alcohol testing for school bus drivers while also imposing stronger penalties on intoxicated school bus drivers.
Bill sponsor Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., who also supports stronger penalties for distracted driving, aims to get the measure passed before the legislative session concludes June 20. There are several other school transportation–related bills awaiting passage as well.
“Parents have every right to expect and demand that school bus drivers [are] sober each and every time they get behind the wheel. They also have a right to expect that anyone convicted of jeopardizing children’s safety by driving a school bus while intoxicated will never, ever be allowed to drive a school bus again,” said Senator Fuschillo.
The bill would increase existing oversight by expanding the random testing pool from 10 percent to 100 percent of a school bus company’s drivers to ensure that all are subject to random drug and alcohol testing. If a driver fails a random alcohol or drug test, the bus company would be required to report it to the Department of Motor Vehicles so that it may be recorded on a driver’s abstract.
In addition to other court-imposed penalties, any driver who operates a school bus while intoxicated would be permanently disqualified from holding a school bus driver’s license. The legislation also increases the prohibited time for a driver to consume alcohol prior to operating a school bus from six hours to eight hours.
Since October 2012, there have been at least four incidents in which drivers were arrested for operating a school bus while intoxicated, including a much-publicized incident when the driver crashed his bus into a Syosset home while transporting five young students.
There have been at least four incidents on Long Island alone since last October in which school bus drivers were arrested for operating a school bus while intoxicated. In one instance, an intoxicated bus driver crashed his bus into a Syosset home with five young students onboard. None of the children on the mini-bus were injured. In April the 66-year-old driver was sentenced to a year in prison for driving drunk and causing the crash.
The New York Association for Pupil Transportation “strongly supports” the legislation. In a memorandum, the association stated the legislation would “strengthen our state’s requirements related to drug and alcohol testing of school bus drivers as well as impose rigorous implications for bus drivers who test positive for drugs or alcohol.”
Meanwhile, the state Senate last week passed another of Fuschillo’s bills, S739, which would allow the DMV to permanently revoke the driver’s license of individuals with any combination of three DWI convictions or chemical test refusals. Anyone with two DWI convictions that resulted in physical injury would also be subject to permanent license revocation. The Assembly is now reviewing the measure.
