Iroquois District school bus driver charged with DWI
Accused of endangering students while in car
A veteran Iroquois Central School District bus driver has been charged with driving while intoxicated, accused of driving with a blood-alcohol level almost twice the legal limit after transporting four students by car Monday morning from the high school in Elma to a school in Orchard Park.
State Police charged Robert A. Donnelly, 70, of East Aurora, with DWI and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Troopers accused him of driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.14 percent.
Donnelly, who has worked for the school district for about eight years, was placed on unpaid administrative leave immediately after his arrest.
“We consider this behavior inexcusable and something we won’t tolerate,” School Superintendent Neil A. Rochelle said Monday, vowing immediate disciplinary action against the driver.
“Thankfully, all the students reached their destination safely.”
State Police and school officials say that at about 7:50 a. m. Monday, Donnelly drove the four students with special learning needs, ages 14 to 16, from Iroquois High School to Baker Road School. Donnelly used a four-door sedan owned by the district for the drive that takes about 15 minutes each way.
When he returned at about 8:30 a.m., a school district transportation supervisor detected an odor of alcohol and alerted the school resource officer, Trooper Joseph J. DePlato, whose investigation revealed that the driver was intoxicated, State Police said.
Besides the criminal charges, Donnelly faces other possible discipline.
Once authorities can confirm the blood-alcohol content, the school district plans to take appropriate disciplinary action, Rochelle said. That’s believed to be termination from his job.
State law requires that anyone registering at least a 0.04 percent blood-alcohol level have his or her commercial driver’s license revoked for at least one year. The standard for DWI is 0.08 percent.
Rochelle said he could not talk about Donnelly’s personnel record, but he did say that school bus drivers are subject to random alcohol and drug testing at least once a year, as per state and district policy.
Authorities expressed their gratitude toward both the transportation supervisor and DePlato, who has been the school resource officer for more than five years.
“That comfort level he has built up with school employees led to the employee approaching Trooper DePlato and reporting this,” State Police Lt. Kevin M. Barnas said.
Barnas, the acting State Police zone commander, was asked how troopers treat drunken-driving suspicions involving a school bus driver.
While State Police investigate every such case fully, he said, “I truly believe any time you have children’s safety involved at all, we take it up a notch. We’re going to look at every detail very closely.”
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