School Bus Driver Arrested for DUI While on Field Trip

By Topher

School bus driver Brian Dunlap faces a litany of charges after he was arrested and charged with DUI while on the job driving teenagers to a field trip destination.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that chaperons on the field trip called 911 when they noticed that Dunlap, their bus driver, was acting strangely.

A Pittsburgh Police report describes the situation in which the chaperon called police during the trip. The chaperon had become nervous when the bus driver narrowly missed running into a pole, then laughed off the situation. The chaperon also noticed that the driver had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, the police said.

The aide finally decided to call the police when Dunlap ran a red light. At that point, an aide called the police, who arrived on the scene and observed the behavior noted, including bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and “swaying back and forth.”

Dunlap underwent a field sobriety test and was taken to a police station, where an expert in drug recognition determined that he was not under the influence of alcohol but likely another drug. Police decided that he was unfit to drive a vehicle, and he was taken to the hospital and then to the Allegheny County jail in Pennsylvania.

Parents were notified to pick up their kids.

In addition to the charges of driving under the influence, Dunlap faces fifteen counts of endangering the welfare of children and two counts of recklessly endangering another person.

Pittsburgh Cares, a non-profit organization that promotes volunteerism and community service, had hired the driver via SD Transit to take fifteen local high school students on a field trip to volunteer and then visit a nearby science center.

A spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Public Schools reported that the field trip was not associated with the public school district. Spokeswoman Ebony Pugh went on to say that the school district does have some dealings with SD Transit, the bus supplier in question, but that Brian Dunlap was not on a list of driver that were authorized to drive for the schools.

SD Transit had no comment on the situation, the Post-Gazette is reporting.