Two stories in the news on Thursday demonstrate the high costs DUI charges can bring, including costing an arrested person a job or career. As noted in a previous post, a person’s career can be jeopardized if they work with the public, practice medicine or teach or coach.
Jobs and careers can be in particular danger if a person drives for a living and is arrested for DUI. The two stories in the news involved two different people who lost their jobs; one a school bus driver who drove the bus while intoxicated, and another a top sailor who was arrested for driving a car while intoxicated.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the 55-year-old former bus driver pleaded guilty to driving the school bus while intoxicated; she was bringing children home from school at the time. She was sentenced Wednesday in suburban Chicago to 30 months of probation. She must also pay a $1,720 fine and perform 480 hours of community service and undergo an alcohol treatment program. The bus driver’s blood-alcohol concentration was 0.226 percent.
The state of Illinois, like Georgia, has a 0.08 legal limit for drivers, but there is a zero-tolerance policy for school bus drivers in Illinois. In Georgia, school bus drivers, like commercial drivers, are considered legally drunk if they have a blood-alcohol concentration of .04 percent or greater.
The next post will look at the case of the Navy sailor.
Source:
Suburban Chicago woman gets 30 months of probation for school bus DUI (Los Angeles Times)