School Bus Driver Blames Doughnut for Failed Sobriety Test

Paula Liu
By Paula Liu
June 4, 2019US News
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School Bus Driver Blames Doughnut for Failed Sobriety Test
Stock image of a school bus. (Michael Schueller/Pixabay)

A Texas school bus driver who was alleged to have been drinking while driving a bus full of children denied she was under the influence, according to ABC13.

Linda Godejohn, a 55-year-old school bus driver, was charged with driving while intoxicated (DWI) but claimed that she does not drink alcohol and hasn’t for a long time. ABC13 approached Godejohn after the bus driver stepped out of jail on May 31. According to the news outlet, Godejohn had a $100 bail bond, but she only paid $10 of that bond before being released.

“They keep saying that I have been drinking,” Godejohn told ABC13 in a brief interview outside immediately after her release. “I don’t drink. I haven’t had a drink in years.”

Detective constable Mark Herman arrested her after witnesses informed the police that she was seen driving erratically with 15 to 20 kids around the age of 13 and 14 on her school bus. According to the witnesses, the bus was swerving into other lanes. They flagged her down and asked her to perform a sobriety test and according to the detectives, she failed miserably.

“Our dispatch received a call from a citizen—a motorist—that a bus was driving very erratically on the roadway, and at one point almost flipped the bus over making a turn,” Herman told ABC13.

When asked how she managed to fail the sobriety test, Godejohn replied that she struggled to stay balanced, and that impacted her performance on the sobriety test.

“It’s hard,” Godejohn told ABC13. “I couldn’t even do it right now.”

In response to the charges, she told the news outlet that she had gotten something to eat at a school—a doughnut—and it had made her stomach upset and caused her some distress. She told the news outlet that she had never come across troubles like this before, and that all the other days when she was behind the wheel, they had not encountered any trouble.

“They’ve been riding all year long. Nothing has changed,” she said. “Except I got something from the school to eat. It had made me sick.”

When asked about the influence, of the doughnut, she said, “my stomach was just hurting so bad that a wheel fell off the thing—the curb. That’s all it was, and going 45 mph, it’s going to whip back.”

No children were injured or harmed during the incident.

According to ABC13, Godejohn was employed by First Student Bus Company, a bus vendor that was contracted under YES Prep Public School. In response to the allegations, the company said it would investigate the case. Godejohn would also be removed from the driving service awaiting the final verdict of the investigation.

YES Prep released a statement saying all the employees of the First Student Bus Company undergo finger-printing check as well as regular background checks. If the investigation proved that the allegations were true, then Godejohn would never be able to drive a YES Prep School bus again.

“We entrust our contracted bus drivers to get children home safely and without incident. Our top priority will always be the safety and well-being of our students – in and out of the classroom,” the statement read. It went further to say that for the past 11 years of contracting with YES Prep school, the company had never come across a situation like this before.

“YES Prep’s contractor selection process is a rigorous one, and we review all contracts annually to ensure our vendors meet our strict safety standards. We have a responsibility to ensure the safety of our students,” the statement read.

“The driver was immediately removed from service pending the outcome of the investigation. Safety of the students we transport is paramount,” the company released in a statement on May 31. “First Student is partnering with the local authorities. Since this is an active investigation, we are unable to comment further.”

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