District Suspends Bus Driver Over Crash -- 3 Students Hurt In Maltby Accident

MALTBY - A school-bus driver suspected of being under the influence of alcohol when his bus ran off the road yesterday - injuring three students - has been suspended without pay, the Snohomish School District announced this morning.

The driver, a 44-year-old Snohomish man, is not expected to return to his job, said Mike Schroeder, the district's executive director of business and operations. Schroeder met with the man this morning and informed him of the suspension, which was based on the man's breath test yesterday and his arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence in September in downtown Monroe.

The man violated state law by not informing the district of the September arrest, Schroeder said.

Following the September arrest, an Evergreen District Court judge granted the man a deferred prosecution, requiring him to attend counseling sessions on alcohol abuse, said Karen Wick, court administrator.

Details of the September arrest were not available this morning. The Snohomish County prosecutor's office will review yesterday's accident and might ask that the man's deferred prosecution be revoked, said Deputy Prosecutor Helenka Koltonowska.

Schroeder said the man "feels terrible" about yesterday's accident and understands he'll likely lose his job. "He enjoys his kids, he enjoys his job," he said. "He was worried sick about the kids."

After yesterday's accident, the man produced a blood-alcohol level of 0.05 on a test administered 90 minutes after the accident, said Lt. Jim Goulet of the State Patrol.

The legal blood-alcohol limit for commercial drivers is 0.04; the limit for noncommercial drivers is 0.10.

News of the test results angered Jim Langland, father of Katrina Langland, 8, who suffered bruises in the accident, which occurred between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m. along 202nd Street Southeast, just east of Echo Lake Road.

"It's something that just shouldn't have happened," Langland said. "Those kids don't have any control. They're at his mercy."

The bus, carrying 11 students to Cathcart Elementary School, apparently went off the road while the driver tried to make a left turn, Goulet said.

The bus went into a ditch, taking down several small trees before making it back onto the road, Goulet said. The left side of the bus was slightly damaged, Goulet said.

The driver told police he had "a drink" the night before but had not been drinking yesterday morning, Goulet said.

Detectives are continuing to investigate when the driver had been drinking, in addition to an apparent time lapse between the time of the accident and the time it was reported.

Goulet said the accident wasn't reported until 8:56 a.m., 26 to 41 minutes after it occurred.

Schroeder said there was a lapse because the driver called the district-dispatch center and told them the students appeared to be OK.

A district official immediately went to the scene and determined that police and an ambulance should be called, Schroeder said.

Schroeder said the driver was taken to a medical clinic in Everett for further alcohol- and drug-testing as part of a new state law. He said the results of those tests wouldn't be available for several days. The driver was not arrested.

Schroeder said the man has driven for the district for six years and hasn't had any previous problems.

Katrina Langland and the two other injured girls, 10 and 11, were taken to Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland. X-rays of Katrina did not reveal injuries, but her father said he planned to have her re-examined today.

"This is something that's going to stick with these girls for a long time," he said. "She's (Katrina) going to feel like she was run over by a Mack truck tomorrow." The other two girls were treated for bumps and bruises and released within two hours, said Gail Neubert, hospital spokeswoman.