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News
Bus driver charged with DUI
BY BRIAN K. FINNICUM, EDITOR
Thursday, November 13, 2008 2:59 PM CST
News Observer photo/Brian K. Finnicum
Robert Winston Harper faces charges in connection with this Wednesday’s school bus wreck.
Robert Winston Harper
Robert Winston Harper, 72, of Mineral Bluff was arrested following the accident and charged with DUI and failure to maintain lane. He was later released from the Fannin County Jail on a $2,300 bond.
According to a report filed by Sgt. G.R. Harper of the Georgia State Patrol, Harper’s blood alcohol level at the time of the accident was 0.127 percent.
Sgt. First Class Kathy Henderson, commander of GSP Post 27 in Blue Ridge, said that under Georgia law, the maximum legal alcohol limit for drivers of commercial vehicles - which includes school buses - is 0.04 percent, making bus driver Harper’s blood alcohol level over three times the legal limit.
According to Sgt. Harper’s report, bus driver Harper was driving west on Mineral Springs Road when according to his statement he encountered a vehicle partially in his lane as he crested a hill. Driver Harper stated he took evasive action by swerving to the right, and ran off the edge of the pavement.
The report states that driver Harper then overcorrected and lost control of the bus. The bus traveled back onto the roadway for a short distance, then ran back off the right side of the pavement, striking a mailbox. The bus then re-entered the roadway and began to overturn. It overturned completely before leaving the pavement and slid off the left side of the roadway, coming to rest on its right side approximately 17 feet off the roadway.
Following the accident, driver Harper was transported to Fannin Regional Hospital for treatment of visible injuries, according to the report.
“I’m very disappointed,” said School Superintendent Mark Henson following the accident. “I am just so thankful no children were on board.”
Henson said that driver Harper had been on his way to Fannin County High School to pick up students when the accident occurred at 2:57 p.m. The bus Harper was driving was a 2007 model International equipped with a lift to accommodate special needs students, Henson said.
Henson said the school system was going to do “everything it takes” to ensure the safety of students on board county buses. He said one of the first steps would be to increase random drug testing of drivers, and that he was making arrangements with the Georgia State Patrol to also conduct random breathalyzer tests, as well.
“We will do our best to learn from this - we’ll do better,” Henson said.
Thursday, Henson said he would be recommending to to the Board of Education at its meeting that night that driver Harper be terminated. He said school officials were also going to pursue legal action to recover damages from driver Harper in connection with the accident.
This accident occurred exactly one week after another incident where a substitute bus driver was removed from a bus for suspected impairment after school officials received reports of erratic driving. That driver was tested for intoxicants by a testing service retained by the school system, but Henson said federal privacy regulations pertaining to medical records prohibited him from releasing the results of that test.
However, Henson said that Chief Mechanic Denver Foster, who took over to finish that driver’s route and accidentally struck a stump on Old Quarry Road, injuring several students on the bus, was also tested and his results were clean.
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