CHICAGO -- A school bus driver who led police on a chase Friday before being shot and killed when he allegedly tried to run down officers worked for a company that's been plagued by recent complaints of driver misconduct ranging from buying booze while on duty to slamming on the brakes to punish kids.
First Student Inc., a private Cincinnati-based bus company, sought to assure the public that its drivers are qualified, after the incident in suburban Chicago, during which the driver rammed police cars and other vehicles after allegedly hijacking the bus from his employer.
"We do extensive background checks," said Glenda Lamont, a spokeswoman for the company that she says transports 4 million in North America every day. "They are more strict than state law requires."
The chase and shooting is the latest in a series of recent incidents across the country in which First Student drivers have been accused of illegal activity, misbehavior or carelessness.
A Brattleboro, Vt., woman faces a misdemeanor charge allegedly stopping suddenly in March to discipline children, causing them to hit their heads on the seat in front of them or fall to the floor. Also in March, a St. Louis driver was fired after allegedly leaving a 4-year-old girl on a bus and trying to sneak her into class about an hour later.
In January, a Billings, Mont., bus driver quit after she was accused of stopping at a liquor store while on her morning route, and a driver in Memphis, Tenn., was fired after a 5-year-old special needs child was left on a bus in cold weather for 90 minutes.
Lamont acknowledged that the company has been the subject of some troubling news stories in the last several months, but said it has "an excellent safety and security record."
The company has a satisfactory rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, its highest rating, according to public records. And the agency's records show the rate at which the company's drivers and vehicles are pulled off the road for violating federal regulations is lower than the national average.
Lamont said the driver in suburban Chicago had been with the company since March and nothing in his background check raised concerns.
The man was "acting erratically and making threats on employees" when he showed up for work at the company's facility in South Holland, then jumped in a bus that already had a female employee aboard and drove off after a manager told him he would not be allowed to drive, police Chief Warren Millsaps said.
Lamont said the company immediately notified police and called parents to tell them not to let their children board the bus. One child did get on, but the driver delivered the student to a Riverdale school without incident.
Police spotted the bus a short time later and ordered the driver out. But instead he "accelerated, attempting to strike the Riverdale officer, who was on foot," then sped off, said Millsaps.
The chase lasted several minutes, with the driver allegedly slamming at least three squad cars and two or three other cars, and ended in neighboring Glenwood when the driver was forced to stop because of road construction.
He was shot after trying to run over officers standing in front of the bus, Millsaps said. The other bus company employee was not injured.
Lamont said nobody has suggested the company's background checks are inadequate.
"At the moment they seem to be isolated incidents that have no pattern, and with the background checks that we do there is no indication that any of these people would not have made suitable employees," she said.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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