School Bus Driver Endangers Children While DUI

[MA-Caver]

Chaos on board drunken school bus ride

As Thompson went out of control, kids take control

Updated: Tuesday, 05 Jan 2010, 7:00 PM EST
Published : Monday, 04 Jan 2010, 10:25 PM EST
http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/crime/Kids-yelled-at-their-drunk-bus-driver#idc-coverALFRED, N.Y. (WIVB) - She was drunk behind the wheel with more than three dozen kids aboard her school bus. Now she's going to spend a lot of weekends in jail.
One student on the video screamed, "Put on the brake!"
This is surveillance video of the dangerous school bus ride last May in the Alfred-Almond school district in Allegany County. 55-year-old Martha Thompson had a blood alcohol content of .15. At the time, she thought the children were overreacting.
>>>To watch the incredible full-length video from the bus ride, click this link
In the video, you can hear Thompson say, "Will you guys stop?"
To which a student replies, "Well, you're not okay and I know it."
The bus hit high speeds, ran over a mailbox, and started rolling backwards downhill.
A student shouts, "Turn the bus off!" "No," says Thompson. "You're backing into the freaking ditch, you're making the little kids cry...Stop!" screams another student.

The student did a good thing getting on the phone and calling someone and also should be commended for calming the younger children down who were obviously getting very upset at the whole mad scene going on around them.

The bus driver's attorney had this to say...

Her attorney blames her behavior on a little alcohol having a bad reaction with Thompson's medication.

Oh so it's okay to ignore the warning labels on drugs that say do not drink alcohol while taking this drug. Sheesh... Mixing alcohol and drugs is dangerous, stupid and shouldn't be done at all when interacting with, transporting children.
I hope she gets her license suspended permanently. It's one thing to be DUI and to have license suspended for 6 months or so... but to be this careless with children on board deserves permanent suspension and IMO lengthy (minimum security) jail time with intensive alcohol counseling and being forced to watch the video over and over and over again til she realizes just how much danger she put those children in.

 

[Carol]

Drug reaction means squat. A later BAC of .15 means drinking a lot of alcohol or ingesting a lot of compounds containing alcohol.

Just watched the video. Kudos to the older kids on the bus for forcing the driver to stop, comforting the smaller kids, and getting most of the kids evacuated.

I guess she's going to spend "a lot of weekends" in jail, but 12 weekends incarceration and 6 months house arrest as punishment for 37 counts of child edangerment and a DUI seems rather tame.

 

[Nolerama]

Wow.

Good job on the kids' part. I think public flogging should be an option in the bus driver's punishment.

 

[MJS]

I call complete BS on the lawyer of the bus driver. A little alcohol? Umm...NO, when you're working, that is not the time to be drinking alcohol, especially in this case, where you're driving a loaded school bus. WTF is wrong with these people? Suspend her DL and fire her *** from the bus company, and toss her in jail for a little while. Maybe her time behind bars will make her think about her actions, although I doubt it.

I do give alot of credit to the student.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Wow.

Good job on the kids' part. I think public flogging should be an option in the bus driver's punishment.

To be administered in sets of 10 lashes each, by each consecutive mother and father of each and every child on board, natch.

 

[Gordon Nore]

The WIVB article says she drove the bus back to the garage... without the kids? Did she just leave them there by the side of the road?

Apart from the kids who tried to take control of the situation, I was also impressed they had the presence of mind to use the rear escape, which tripped the alarm. It's safer than trying to exit by the side and potentially step right into traffic.

 

[Carol]

The WIVB article says she drove the bus back to the garage... without the kids? Did she just leave them there by the side of the road?

The article doesn't say, but it sure sounds like it, esp. with the notation that the older kids with cell phones were calling their parents for help.

 

[grydth]

I call complete BS on the lawyer of the bus driver. A little alcohol? Umm...NO, when you're working, that is not the time to be drinking alcohol, especially in this case, where you're driving a loaded school bus. WTF is wrong with these people? Suspend her DL and fire her *** from the bus company, and toss her in jail for a little while. Maybe her time behind bars will make her think about her actions, although I doubt it.

I do give alot of credit to the student.

Defense lawyers have the task of defending those everyone else may despise and trying to put the best face they can on sometimes damning sets of evidence. That said, I wish the judge had 'called complete BS' on the defense and given this menace the sentence she truly deserved - the only way we are going to see an end (or even a significant reduction) to stories such as this is when the punishment is severe enough to deter the crime.

I once put a multiple DWi offender out of the Army. He later wrote the unit a letter, cursing me and bemoaning the fact that the only job he could find with the convictions was.... school bus driver.

 

[Carol]

Defense lawyers have the task of defending those everyone else may despise and trying to put the best face they can on sometimes damning sets of evidence.

Agreed. Its a right in the Constitution.

That said, I wish the judge had 'called complete BS' on the defense and given this menace the sentence she truly deserved

Ding ding ding!!! B.S. on the Judge!!

http://www.eveningtribune.com/news/education/x313659773/A-A-bus-driver-now-facing-felony-DWI

[Judge Gail] Barron is employed by the Alfred Almond Central School District as a fifth and sixth grade teacher’s aide.


“I let her lawyer know that there may be a conflict of interest here,” said Barron.

 

[MJS]

Defense lawyers have the task of defending those everyone else may despise and trying to put the best face they can on sometimes damning sets of evidence. That said, I wish the judge had 'called complete BS' on the defense and given this menace the sentence she truly deserved - the only way we are going to see an end (or even a significant reduction) to stories such as this is when the punishment is severe enough to deter the crime.

I once put a multiple DWi offender out of the Army. He later wrote the unit a letter, cursing me and bemoaning the fact that the only job he could find with the convictions was.... school bus driver.

If, in another lifetime, I had the chance to become an attny. I certainly would not be one for the defense.

But yes, I do agree with you...the judge should have done just that.

 

[Carol]

If, in another lifetime, I had the chance to become an attny. I certainly would not be one for the defense.

But yes, I do agree with you...the judge should have done just that.

Natch, its your right not to become a defense attorney.

But I don't think its fair to paint them all with a broad brush.

Keep in mind that defense attorneys do more than trying to bargain lenient sentences for people that have harmed others. They also play a role in keeping law-abiding citizens on the proper side of the law. This is something that is extremely important in martial arts, where we train to control, harm, cripple, or kill another person.

Yet how many martial artists actually take the time to consult with a defense attorney, and to get a better understanding of the laws in their state especially as they relate to firearms or personal protection?

Here's one example.

http://web.mac.com/dariusarbabi/Massgunlaw.com/Massgunlaw.com.html


Mr. Darius Arbabi who practices in Framingham, MA. I know I have made wiser choices thanks to the conversations that I have personally had with Darius (he'd prolly punch me if I called him Mr. Arbabi...LOL), and I'm sure at least one other person on the board has as well. Many people say they would rather be tried by 12 than carried by six....well....I don't want to be tried by 12 to begin with.

 

[grydth]

If, in another lifetime, I had the chance to become an attny. I certainly would not be one for the defense.

But yes, I do agree with you...the judge should have done just that.

There is nothing wrong with this attitude at all; indeed the profession requires you not take a case if you have a conflict or cannot give it your all.

Sometimes, though, one hasn't a choice. The Army first assigned me to be a defense lawyer....some acquittals later and I found myself a prosecutor for the rest of my time. No choice on my part in either assignment. Did both as well as I could.

As a member of the public, you've got every right to despise defendants (as I do the one here), and you need not care for the lawyers or judge much, either. But our system will only function (once again)if we have good folks in all positions.

I do feel our system has become terribly dysfunctional, but I don't blame any one person or even group. Rather, I believe it mostly stems from a loss of societal will to defend ourselves and condemn/adequately punish the wrongdoers.... you see it with alien terrorists getting into the country and you see it with domestic monsters let out over and over to rape and kill again.

 

[MJS]

Regarding my defense lawyer comment....after reading what was said, I do agree, they do have their place. If someone was an innocent victim and is being accused of something, legal advice, as Carol said, etc., then sure. But when I think of something like this case, or where you have a violent crime, and the lawyer is defending someone who is guilty, who killed someone, etc., then in that case, I can't see how the lawyer could live with himself.

 

[grydth]

There are a number of occupations where one has to do things for individuals most others would rather see fed into a wood chipper. Defense lawyer is just one.

How about the medical team that's had to treat the failed Christmas hijacker for serious burns? They have to treat and save an individual who came to our country solely to murder hundreds of Americans. Should they be troubled?

How about police who have to safeguard despicable individuals? Secret Service personnel who might have to give their lives to protect politicians many regard as pond scum? Firefighters who have to save a pederast's house? How many more occupations can we come up with where you might have to assist monsters?

You're providing a professional service.... and I'll tell you something one learns as you get older. Very little in life is stark black and white.

 

[Carol]

I read somewhere, either on one of the links here, or one of the links that Google news found, that the DA in the case was pleased with the sentencing.

If the DA was pleased...that strikes me as negotiations that started low and stayed low. What's your take on that Grydth? You have more experience there than I do.

 

[grydth]

Possibilities: Some results that seem to lawyers as terrific in a professional sense seem outrageous to the general public. This can result from lawyers being simply out of touch with what common citizens (and kids' parents) think as fair... or it can result from sensationalized media stories whipping people into a frenzy, one exceeding the severity of the facts of the crime.... or, there may have been a judge presiding who's known to be lenient on this type of crime, and getting any jail time on a DWI from Judge Smurf is a major victory....

Or there may have been evidentiary or witness credibility problems that we know nothing about. A lot of plea bargains that seem awful to the public result from this type of situation..... the DA knows that the judge may toss key evidence or the jury might believe the star witness - resulting in a criminal going completely free. The defense knows they might get a full acquittal - - - or their client may be in the concrete hotel for decades. Nobody feels lucky.

Just guesses based on experience, I could well be wrong on this one....