Authorities: Rush City school bus driver charged with DWI had BAC of 0.19%

Charges have been filed against a Rush City, Minn., school bus driver who was allegedly drunk while transporting students to school.

Kara Ffrench was charged with two counts of gross misdemeanor drunken driving. She had a blood-alcohol content of 0.19% when she was arrested Thursday morning after the bus carrying 45 elementary and high school students slid off Game Avenue and came to rest on the edge of a cornfield, according to charges filed Friday in Chisago County District Court.

None of the students on the bus were injured, sheriff’s deputies said Thursday.

Ffrench, 59, smelled of alcohol and told deputies that her foot “didn’t find the brake,” explaining how the bus got stuck. She backed into a pole with an attached basketball hoop three times as she tried to get the bus back on the road, according to the charges.

Deputies administered a sobriety test and had Ffrench step off the bus to perform a walk-and-turn test. She fell off the line on the first attempt and was given a second try. Ffrench had “multiple other problems performing the test and eventually gave up without completing it,” the charges said.

Ffrench was carrying an insulated mug when she exited the bus. The mug smelled of coffee and some kind of alcoholic beverage, the charges said.

Two hours after her preliminary breath sample registered 0.19%, Ffrench took a second test that revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.17%, according to the charges.

Ffrench remained in the Chisago County jail on Friday and is due in court May 15.