School bus driver could face 110 years in prison for DUI crash
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A driving under the influence charge (DUI) can land you in hot water with the law. Even a first offense can result in jail time if there are injuries or the driver’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is too high. However, a judge might take things a little more seriously when, say, it’s a school bus driver with 19 students on board. In this case, though, a bus driver had a rollover crash with all those students on board. And the sentence could see him in jail for the rest of his life.
A WV school bus driver with a 0.161% BAC had a rollover crash with 19 students on board, and he’s looking at over 100 years
Last year, a West Virginia school bus driver rolled a Calhoun County Schools bus on Route 16. That sounds troubling enough as it is. After all, school buses often lack even basic safety features like seatbelts. However, the driver, 54-year-old Jeffrey Allen Brannon, was drunk while he was behind the wheel. Really drunk.
When police tested Brannon on the scene, he blew a 0.161%. The state’s law forbids driving with a BAC of more than 0.08%. However, Brannon’s breathalyzer result of 0.161% put him above the “Aggravated DUI” line, per the West Virginia DMV. Needless to say, it was a serious crime. But that’s just the beginning of it.
Brannon had 19 students on board between the ages of 11 and 18. When the bus rolled over in the crash, three of the students sustained serious injuries, including concussions and back injuries. The other students received treatment and discharge from local hospitals.
Now, Brannon is facing some serious jail time for the bus crash. For starters, Brannon received a DUI charge and 16 counts of child neglect, per WSAZ. On top of those charges, the former bus driver received three counts of “causing bodily injury” for the three seriously injured students. For those charges, Brannon received consecutive sentences of at least two years but “not more than 10 years.”
All in all, the judge presiding over Brannon’s case sentenced the drunk driver to between 22 and 110 years in prison. It’s a serious sentence. But all things considered, most of the students are lucky that things weren’t worse. A school bus can halt traffic with lights and a retractable stop sign. But without seatbelts or airbags, a rollover school bus crash could have been fatal for many of the passengers.
