Allegedly Drunk School Bus Driver Arrested After Taking Students On A Wild Ride

Oct 08, 2019 by apost team

Rides to and from school are usually pretty uneventful affairs. Some children talk to one another about school and about their interests, while others look out the windows at the passing scenery, which usually hasn't altered much in the past days and weeks. However, all of that changed on one terrifying day when a group of children's driver was allegedly drunk and took them on a ride straight out of a horror movie.

Catherine Maccarone, the school bus driver of this group of children in Longview, Washington, initially started going off on her husband, calling him a "son of a gun," while sitting on an empty bus and preparing to pick up children. Her monologue continued after they arrived, much to the confusion of all of the children on the packed bus, who started panicking when she wildly screamed, "I am crazy. I'm totally crazy. Because I love life!"

apost.com

The reckless driver initially drove high-school students before elementary-school children boarded the bus. Ultimately, a 10-year-old fifth-grader called 911 on the driver after getting off the bus, telling the operator, "Our bus driver, Catherine, she was drunk because she passed three red lights. ... Her breath sort of smelled like alcohol." Police who responded reported that an "obvious" odor of intoxicants emanated from the driver.

Officials also said that Maccarone had a blood-alcohol level of .09, which is more than twice the legal limit that's allowed for those driving buses. The driver added while she was being arrested and placed in Cowlitz County Jail that she was taking anti-anxiety and sleep medication to help her deal with the process of getting divorced reports KGW. She pled not guilty to the charges of driving under the influence and reckless endangerment. She also resigned from her position on Sept. 26, two weeks after the scary drive took place.

After the incident, Dr. Dan Zorn, the superintendent of Longview Public Schools, said to KGW that this was an isolated case. However, he added that this shouldn't have even happened once and that his department is "doing everything we can to assure it does not happen (again)." Some of the changes have included more face-to-face interactions between drivers and others prior to them hitting the roads.

Did you have any scary moments while you were riding school buses as a child? Did they compare to anything like this?