Charges: Bus driver with 35 YMCA campers aboard was drunk, drinking behind wheel near Duluth

A drunken charter bus driver with dozens of young YMCA campers aboard was drinking alcohol while behind the wheel and weaving across the interstate south of Duluth before a state trooper pulled him over, according to charges.

Patrick D. Bullard, 49, of Cannon Falls, Minn., was charged Tuesday in Carlton County District Court with two gross misdemeanor drunken-driving counts and two misdemeanor counts of violating state open-bottle laws in connection with him operating the bus late Sunday morning on Interstate 35 while extremely intoxicated.

A state trooper's roadside breath test measured Bullard's blood alcohol content at 0.257%. The maximum legal limit in Minnesota for the operator of a commercial vehicle is 0.04%.

Bullard was arrested at the scene, jailed and released Tuesday under various conditions and without having to post bail. Messages were left Thursday with him and his attorney seeking a response to the allegations. He's due back in court on Nov. 2.

John Benjamin, president of the Eagan-based Northfield Lines charter bus company, said Bullard was fired immediately after working for him for slightly more than a year.

"That morning, he was running a little bit late," Benjamin said. Otherwise, "nothing seemed out of the ordinary."

In a statement Benjamin released earlier this week, he said, "Our company is extremely shocked and disappointed over this situation. ... What happened here was that the driver made a very poor choice and will be held accountable. I do feel sympathetic for his family."

One of the chaperones told law enforcement that he saw Bullard driving while drinking from a cup that troopers later determined contained whiskey, the criminal complaint read.

"While we are distraught over what has happened," Benjamin's statement read, "we are extremely thankful that all passengers were safe and unharmed."

Joan Schimml, spokeswoman for the YMCA of the North, said her organization has been contracting satisfactorily with Northfield for nearly two decades but intends to monitor "any actions taken by Northfield ... as we review our relationship with them for the future."

According to the charges:

Emergency dispatch received a complaint about 11:20 a.m. that the bus was going from shoulder to shoulder along northbound I-35 and nearly went into a ditch.

Once the troopers pulled up next to the bus, the driver pulled over and appeared "quite dazed and disoriented," the charges continued. Bullard exited the bus and showed numerous signs of intoxication, but contended he had not been drinking for days.

Bullard failed a field sobriety test as well as the subsequent preliminary breath test. Asked again by troopers when he last had a drink, he said it had been three hours.

Troopers found in his backpack a 1.75-liter bottle of whiskey that was one-third empty. In his cup holder was a mixed drink that smelled of whiskey.

Once Bullard was arrested, "the bus was driven by public safety officials to a nearby gas station" and remained there until a new driver arrived, Schimml said.