A school bus driver in West Virginia was arrested on March 4 and charged with driving under the influence in connection to a crash in which multiple school children were injured, the Associated Press reported.
In a March 5 press release, West Virginia State Police Captain Robert Maddy said 54-year-old Jeffrey Brannon was charged with multiple counts of child neglect resulting in injury and driving while intoxicated after the school bus he was driving crashed in Calhoun County.
State police were called to Route 16 at about 6:00 p.m. on Monday, March 4 after the school bus Brannon was driving veered off the right edge of the road. Brannon overcorrected, causing the bus, with 19 middle and high school students aboard, to tip over onto its left side in the middle of the road.
Several students were taken to nearby hospitals for injuries, Capt. Maddy said.
According to the criminal complaint, one child suffered from a concussion while another sustained a fractured vertebrae.
The total number of injured students was not known.
When state police arrived at the scene, Brannon was still inside the bus.
According to the complaint written by responding Trooper Corporal Brian Young, Brannon began to yell and act aggressively. When Cpl. Young took Brannon’s statement, he could smell alcohol on the driver’s breath. Brannon admitted to Cpl. Young that he had been drinking.
A field sobriety test showed Brannon’s blood alcohol level was 0.161 percent. A subsequent blood test performed at the Grantsville State Police barracks found that Brannon’s blood alcohol level was 0.127 percent, well over West Virginia’s legal limit of 0.08 percent.
A Calhoun County Magistrate set Brannon’s bond at $250,000 and he was transported to the Central Regional Jail.
The state police investigation into the crash is ongoing.
