Police: Bus driver drove drunk with 35 kids on board

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A 56-year-old bus driver for a school district in New York is facing felony drunken-driving charges after sideswiping a telephone pole with 35 high school students on board Monday, state police said.

Mary Coletti, a driver for the Lakeland School District, was transporting students from Walter Panas High School when she hit a telephone pole at about 7 a.m. Monday, according to state police.

Police said a breathalyzer test showed Coletti had a 0.13% blood alcohol content — 0.05 percentage points higher than the legal threshold for drunken driving.

A few students suffered minor injuries.

According to Lakeland Superintendent George Stone, Coletti's bus driver's license has been revoked and there was a new bus driver that afternoon.

"As a district that places our very highest priority on the safety and security of our students, we're very concerned about what happened," said Stone. "We are going to cooperate with the police in their investigation. We're conducting our own investigation as well and plan to take all appropriate actions as necessary."

Stone said the district, which runs its own buses, puts its drivers through "very rigorous" safety programs along with regular testing for drugs and alcohol. Coletti, he said, slipped by those testing protocols.

Coletti, of Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., faces felony driving while intoxicated charges under Leandra's Law, which is a 2009 New York state law that penalizes those who drive drunk with children on board.

She was arraigned in town court and sent to Westchester County Jail in lieu of $1,000 bail. She is scheduled to return to court May 18.

According to the Lakeland website, bus drivers for the district start work at 5:30 a.m. with vehicle inspections before beginning to make their rounds at 6:30 a.m.

The school district could not immediately be reached for comment.

Contributing: The Associated Press.