The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced on Thursday that all newly manufactured school buses should be equipped with alcohol detection systems to prevent drunk driving incidents. This recommendation follows a severe crash two years ago on a West Virginia highway, where a school bus rolled over, resulting in a boy losing his leg and two other children sustaining serious injuries. Police quickly determined that the driver was intoxicated at the time of the accident.
However, the NTSB's investigation uncovered a more alarming trend: impaired driving among school bus drivers is not an isolated occurrence. For the first time, the agency has called for the installation of alcohol detection devices on all new school buses. These systems would disable the vehicle if they detect that the driver may be under the influence.
“There’s a higher expectation for school bus drivers than many other types of drivers,” said Kris Poland, deputy director of the NTSB’s Office of Highway Safety. “We expect that the drivers are attentive, not fatigued, not impaired and are driving as safely as possible.”
The NTSB did not provide an estimate for the cost of adding these detection systems or specify who would bear the expense. Ignition interlock devices, commonly required for individuals convicted of DUIs, typically cost between $75 and $150 to install, with an additional monthly monitoring fee of around $100. Federal regulators or states could mandate the technology, but widespread adoption would require congressional legislation.
The recommendation specifically targets alcohol rather than drugs, as alcohol was determined to be the probable cause of the West Virginia crash, and no equivalent tests exist for other substances like marijuana. Additionally, there are no clear legal standards for impairment from other drugs.
This proposal follows a previous NTSB recommendation, adopted by Congress, to require alcohol detection systems in all new passenger vehicles. However, that rule is still pending due to the ongoing rulemaking process.
The NTSB has long expressed concern about drunk driving, which contributes to one-third of the approximately 37,000 annual traffic fatalities. Investigators struggled to determine the exact prevalence of impaired driving among school bus drivers but found sufficient evidence to justify the need for alcohol detection systems. Federal highway safety agencies do not track school bus driver DUIs separately from other commercial drivers, and data often excludes allegations if no fatal crash occurred. However, a 2020 report by Stateline.org revealed at least 118 school bus drivers had been accused of drunk driving over the previous five years, according to Meg Sweeny, lead author of the NTSB report on the West Virginia crash.
In that incident, the driver lost control after hitting a driveway culvert on a rural road. All 19 children on board were injured, though most sustained only minor harm. The driver was sentenced last year to up to 110 years in prison.
Peter Kurdock, general counsel for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, noted that while the number of drunk driving cases among bus drivers is small relative to the total, it is still alarming. “Children going to and from the schoolhouse are America’s most precious passengers,” Kurdock said. “So we should be doing all we can to make the bus as safe as possible.”
However, Kurdock predicted pushback from owners of the nation’s half-million school buses, similar to industry opposition to the NTSB’s longstanding recommendation for seat belts on school buses. Although several states have mandated seat belts, most buses lack them, partly because they are already considered quite safe. Even when seat belts are installed, the NTSB noted that students may not wear them, prompting an urgent recommendation last fall after a Texas crash for districts to enforce their use.
The three largest school bus companies, which transport children on approximately 80,000 buses daily, and the primary bus manufacturers did not respond to requests for comment. The National School Boards Association also did not immediately comment.
The NTSB emphasized that most school bus trips remain safe. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, of the nearly 1,000 fatal crashes involving school buses in the decade through 2023, 70% of the nearly 1,100 deaths were occupants of other vehicles, not the bus. Only 113 school bus passengers died during that period, highlighting that the large yellow vehicles are generally safe unless children are thrown from their seats. The NTSB believes that installing seat belts and ensuring their use would significantly enhance safety.
Attorney Todd Spodek, whose New York law firm has handled tens of thousands of drunk driving cases, does not believe the recommendation would violate bus drivers' rights. He argued that drivers cannot reasonably claim that alcohol screening is too burdensome. “If you’re in a position of control of something like that, you should be held to a higher scrutiny,” Spodek said. “It’s a minor inconvenience with a tremendous upside.”
AP Writer John Raby contributed to this report from Charleston, West Virginia.
