CENTREVILLE, Va. – A bus driver for an elementary school in the nation’s capital has been charged with driving while intoxicated after his bus veered into a ditch while returning from a field trip to a farm in northern Virginia.
Nine children were treated at the scene for minor injuries, Fairfax County Police said.
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The bus was carrying 44 children and four adults back Thursday to Murch Elementary School in Washington, D.C., after a field trip to Cox Farms in Centreville, Virginia — a popular field trip destination in the region.
Police said the bus hit a rock and veered into a ditch off a road in the northern Virginia county.
The 48-year-old driver from Suitland, Maryland, was charged after police say he failed a field sobriety test and had a blood-alcohol content of .20, more than double the legal limit of .08.
Police say the driver's license had already been revoked in Virginia from a prior drunken driving conviction.
Officers also said they found a combined 18 safety violations on the two buses carrying children to the field trip and that none of the operators were properly licensed to operate a school bus.
D.C. Public Schools said in a statement that it plans to undertake a review of the transportation vendors it uses for field trips and other extracurricular activities.