Following a devastating school bus crash in West Virginia that left one child requiring leg amputation and severely injured two others, federal safety officials have made their first-ever recommendation for mandatory alcohol detection technology on all new school buses.
The National Transportation Safety Board issued the recommendation Thursday after investigators found that impaired driving among school bus operators extends far beyond isolated incidents.
“There’s a higher expectation for school bus drivers than many other types of drivers,” explained 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 proposed alcohol detection systems would prevent buses from starting if they sense driver impairment. While the NTSB hasn’t calculated implementation costs, similar ignition interlock devices typically required for DUI offenders cost between $75-$150 for installation plus approximately $100 monthly for monitoring.
Implementation would require action from federal regulators, states, or Congress for widespread adoption. The recommendation targets alcohol specifically rather than other substances because investigators determined alcohol caused the West Virginia incident, and reliable testing for drugs like marijuana isn’t readily available with established legal impairment thresholds.
This follows a previous NTSB recommendation that Congress approved requiring alcohol detection in all new passenger cars, though that rule remains stalled in regulatory processes.
Alcohol contributes to roughly one-third of the nation’s 37,000 annual traffic fatalities, making it a persistent concern for the NTSB. While exact statistics on school bus driver impairment proved difficult to obtain, investigators uncovered sufficient evidence to justify the new safety measures.
Federal highway safety agencies don’t separately track school bus driver DUIs from other commercial operators, and data often excludes non-fatal incidents. However, a 2020 Stateline.org investigation revealed at least 118 school bus drivers faced drunk driving accusations over five years, according to Meg Sweeny, lead author of the NTSB’s West Virginia crash report.
In that tragic incident, the driver lost vehicle control after striking a driveway culvert along a rural roadway. All 19 students sustained injuries, though most were minor. The driver received a prison sentence of up to 110 years.
Even though impaired bus drivers represent a small percentage of all operators, the cases remain concerning, said Peter Kurdock, general counsel for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
“Children going to and from the schoolhouse are America’s most precious passengers,” Kurdock stated. “So we should be doing all we can to make the bus as safe as possible.”
However, Kurdock anticipates resistance from owners of the nation’s half-million school buses, similar to industry opposition against the NTSB’s long-standing seat belt recommendations for school buses.
While several states mandate seat belts, most school buses lack them partly because the vehicles are considered inherently safe. Even when seat belts are installed, student compliance remains questionable, prompting the NTSB to issue an urgent recommendation last fall following a Texas crash for districts to ensure proper usage.
The three largest school bus companies operating 80,000 daily routes and primary manufacturers didn’t respond to requests for comment on the NTSB recommendation. The National School Boards Association also hasn’t provided immediate feedback.
The NTSB emphasizes that school bus transportation remains generally safe.
Among nearly 1,000 fatal school bus crashes in the decade preceding 2023, 70% of approximately 1,100 deaths occurred in other vehicles rather than the buses themselves, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.
Only 113 school bus passengers died during that period, demonstrating the large yellow vehicles’ safety effectiveness when children remain properly seated. The NTSB believes mandatory seat belts with enforcement would significantly improve outcomes.
Attorney Todd Spodek, whose New York firm has handled thousands of drunk driving cases, doesn’t believe the recommendation infringes on driver rights. He sees no viable argument that alcohol screening creates excessive burden.
Spodek emphasized that safety benefits from ensuring driver sobriety far exceed any inconvenience concerns.
“If you’re in a position of control of something like that, you should be held to a higher scrutiny,” Spodek explained. “It’s a minor inconvenience with a tremendous upside.”
