Posted on 11/13/2006 6:53:29 AM PST by Risha
Alleged new OUI twist: Mixing drinks and driving By O’Ryan Johnson Monday, November 13, 2006 - Updated: 02:47 AM EST
As the wheels on her bus turned round and round, a 38-year-old school bus driver allegedly mixed a cocktail and downed about a half pint of rum, all while driving a 9-year-old girl home from school, police said.
Sterling police said after they stopped Cynthia Lea, she refused to take a field sobriety test and registered a blood alcohol level of 0.24, three times the legal limit.
“She just said, ‘I’m so drunk I can’t do it,’ ” said the arresting officer, Craig Pomeroy. “She said, ‘Just arrest me.’ She started laughing.”
No one was laughing at the Princeton home of the 9-year-old special needs student Lea was responsible for. The girl’s mother Cynthia McCollough, frantically dialed the driver’s cell phone when she was 20 minutes late dropping off her daughter.
The jeep pulled up to McCollough’s home about 4 p.m.
“Once her daughter was dropped off late, there was a confrontation between the mother and the driver of the school bus,” Pomeroy said. “She backed into a fence on the mother’s property and took off down the road.”
At the same time, McCollough’s husband arrived home from work and chased the bus down Route 140, where he saw it speeding, driving on the wrong side of the road, and weaving.
Police stopped Lea at the bus company on Clinton Road.
“Right away it was quite obvious to us she’d been drinking,” Pomeroy said. He said police found a half-empty pint of rum in Lea’s handbag and a bottle of Coke in the school bus.
The 9-year-old was the only student aboard the bus, police said. No one at the bus company, Village Transportation of Sterling, could be reached for comment. A man who answered the phone at Lea’s Sterling home said she was “not available.”
Sterling police charged Lea with operating under the influence. She will also be charged with child endangerment and destruction of property by Princeton police.
BUMP
Often times private cars are used as "buses". when there are two or three children.
What's OUI?
Operating under the influence.
I hope the family sues her and she spends many years in jail. Pathetic, absolutely pathetic.
Definitely the portrait of a liberal....
She couldn't wait thirty more minutes for her precious bender? She couldn't drop the girl off first?
Just damn.
"Operating under the influence."
Thank you.
"YES" .... in French.
I don't know how people can drink and drive. A shot glass is way too big for the can holder between the seats and just tips over anyway.
A men's magazine owned by Playboy in the 70s.
She was probably drinking all day. It's more common than you think.
A tad more ris-kay than Playboy, IIRC.
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