DWI Hit Parade!

According to St. Mary’s Sheriff’s Department, on December 13, 2012 at approximately 3:15 p.m. the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office’s, Leonardtown High School, School Resource Officer Cpl. Chad Hartzell, was contacted by the St. Mary’s County Public School Transportation Department.  The Transportation Department received a complaint regarding the operator of School Bus # 603.  The complain alleged the operator of Bus #603 was operating the school bus in reckless driving and was possibly under the influence of alcohol. The bus and driver were stationary, outside of Leonardtown High School loading students at the end of day’s dismissal.  Approximately 12 students had loaded onto the bus but the bus had not yet departed.   Cpl. Hartzell made contact with the driver who was identified as Ethel Quade Ressler, 67, of Mechanicsville Maryland.

While speaking with Ressler, Cpl. Hartzell detected an odor of an alcoholic beverage on Ressler’s breath and person.  Cpl. Hartzell also observed other signs of possible impairment. Cpl. Hartzell had Ressler exit the bus and he conducted a Standardized Field Sobriety Test. Upon the completion of the test, Ressler was placed under arrest for operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and transported to the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office.

While being processed at the Sheriff’s Office, police say that Ressler made threats to harm herself. Ressler was transported to a local hospital for evaluation.

Ressler was charged with the following traffic violations:

Driving vehicle while under the influence of alcohol

Driving while impaired by alcohol

Attempting to drive vehicle while impaired by alcohol while transporting a minor

Negligent Driving

No person within 4 hours having physical control of vehicle shall possess intoxicating beverage

The Sheriff’s Office is continuing the investigation and consulting with the St. Mary’s County States Attorneys Office.  Additional criminal charges against Russler may be depending.  In addition, the Sheriff’s Office is cooperating with the St. Mary’s County Public School System as they conduct their internal administrative investigation. Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to contact Cpl. Chad Hartzell at 301-475-4040.

Long Island school bus driver James Sommer under arrest for DWI while driving bus load of children

From NBC New York
A Long Island school bus driver was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated after he crashed a bus filled with seventh-graders during a field trip Monday morning, police said.
He’s the third Long Island school bus driver to be arrested on DWI charges this month.
Police said James Sommer, 47, was driving a bus carrying 29 Plainedge Middle School seventh-graders and a teacher to the DNA Learning Center at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He was trying to park the bus when he backed into a tree limb.
A 12-year-old girl was taken to Huntington Hospital with minor injuries.
Sommer, of Massapequa, was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated ….MORE

Joanne Madaule

From Ventura County Star
Marguerita McIntosh was on her afternoon walk to the neighborhood CVS store Wednesday when she was hit and killed by a Ventura school bus driver accused of being under the influence.
McIntosh, 75, was born in London and lived in the same Ventura home with her husband for 52 years.
“My mom was the light of my dad’s life,” said daughter Kate McDonald. “She was beloved by everyone.”
The bus driver, Joanne Madaule, 54, of Ventura, was released Thursday from jail on bond. Bail was set at $50,000. She was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence causing injury and vehicular manslaughter, police said
Madaule is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday. She could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The bus had 11 students aboard when the incident occurred about 2:55 p.m ….MORE

From Red Bluff Daily News
Charges have been filed against a Corning Union High School bus driver who reportedly was drunk as she drove to pick up students for school.
Laura Lynn East, 50, of Corning, has been charged with 17 felony counts of child endangerment, one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence and one misdemeanor count of hit and run, the Tehama County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.
The charges stem from an Aug. 29 incident.
District Attorney Gregg Cohen said, according to a California Highway Patrol investigation, East reportedly backed into a sign, swerved the bus nearly into a culvert and continued to swerve while stopping at locations to pick up students for school.
Students told investigators East nearly drove the bus off the shoulder of the road.  ….MORE

From (NECN: Lauren Collins)
 - It’s not a great way to start the week.
“There was a whole lot of anxiety going on,” says Windham, New Hampshire Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Labranche.
Police started getting reports of a school bus driving erratically around 6:45 Monday morning. Kids on that bus were calling their parents too. Officers found 50-year-old Kimberly Hooley in the middle school parking lot, spoke with her and arrested her for suspicion of DWI.
“The important thing is no one was hurt. Absolutely no one was hurt,” says Labranche.
But the students were shaken up. The bumpy ride to school included a crash into a mail box….MORE

From KBZK
Bozeman Schools Superintendent Dr. Kirk Miller says he was surprised when he got the call Friday morning that two charter bus drivers who were taking a group of 98 Sacajawea seventh graders on a field trip to Yellowstone National Park were under arrest for allegedly drinking and driving.
“Its just one of those things I would never have expected that that kind of thing would happen on any trip we’ve ever taken. And when it did I’m proud of the group of people who worked diligently to ensure student safety,” said Miller.….MORE

From WITN
Duplin County, NC — A school bus driver has been fired after Duplin County School officials say she was drinking alcohol.
Fontella Wilson, 31 of Rose Hill was charged with DWI and driving a school bus after consuming alcohol. Wilson was driving a bus with 50 students from E.E. Smith Middle School.
The school system says Thursday morning a parent contacted them, asking why their child’s bus was late. Contacted by radio, the driver told the transportation director she wasn’t feeling well. The driver was told to pull over and help was being sent.
The transportation driver found the bus on the side of the road and all the children safe. He called paramedics and a substitute driver finished the route. ….MORE

From New York Post
A man was killed after he was hit by a tour bus on Manhattan’s West Side last  night — pinned underneath the vehicle’s wheels
and dragged for about a half  block, witnesses and police said.
Timothy White, 29, of Philadelphia, was walking eastbound across Ninth Avenue  when he was struck by the Travelynx bus at 9:58 p.m. at 47th Street and Ninth  Avenue, police said. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital where he died…..MORE

From NJ.com
When officers stopped the school bus near the Bloomfield municipal complex this afternoon, they thought they were pulling over a careless driver who had just missed hitting another car.
But when they confronted the 62-year-old driver, what they found was “truly frightening,” Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said.
Elizabeth Anaya, on her way to pick up a group of developmentally disabled children at the Sawlette Learning Center in Montclair, had a half-full can of Coors Light beer on the seat between her legs and an empty bottle of Bacardi rum in her jacket pocket, Fontoura said.
“It was most fortunate that our officers crossed paths with this individual,” Fontoura said. “While the driver was the only person on the bus at the time of her arrest, she was on her way to pick up children who suffer from autism.”The potential consequences of these children being on her bus are truly frightening,” he said…..MORE