D.C. Public Schools said it's parting ways with a charter bus company it has used since 2016 after one of its drivers was charged with DWI while driving students on a pumpkin patch field trip.
The driver, 48-year-old Troy Reynolds of Oxon Hill, is in jail after his bus crashed with 44 kindergartners on board Thursday afternoon in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Students from Ben Murch Elementary School in Northwest D.C. were returning from a field trip to Cox Farms in Centreville when the crash happened.
Reynolds smelled of alcohol when officers arrived, police said. They say he had 0.20 blood alcohol level when he was arrested. The legal limit for drivers in Virginia is 0.08.
Reynolds was driving for Rome Charters LLC of Fort Washington, Maryland, which is registered with the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Faith Wright, a former employee who said she was a supervisor for the company, said she was concerned about its safety protocols.
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“’Cause it's a, you know, a sensitive job,” she said. “You're driving people, you're driving children, um, especially them. School bus children, you know, elementary school. That's all they did trips and stuff for was, like, elementary school kids.”
She said she was concerned the company did not appear to do drug tests or background checks on many drivers.
“I've never had a CDL (commercial drivers license) driver job where you didn't get tested,” Wright said. “Even as a supervisor, since I hold a CDL, you know what I'm saying, you would still get tested.”
She said she was also alarmed by how quickly drivers were allowed to start working.
“You fill out the application one day and you're working the next, and that's with no test or anything,” Wright said. “That's the part that was concerning to me.”
According to Fairfax County police, Reynolds’ license was revoked in Virginia from a prior DWI and suspended in Maryland.
Two buses sent to replace Reynolds’ bus also were taken out of service by police for safety violations. None of those drivers was properly licensed to operate a school bus, according to Fairfax County police.
News4 was told to leave the company’s lot. The charter company hung up when News4 called.
Trucking safety expert Lew Grill of The Legacy Corporation said both DCPS and the charter company are responsible.
“The school district needs to be looked at itself because they should have been doing oversight, not just saying, Well, I'm gonna hire a bona fide company. it's got a U.S. DOT number, oh, gee, they must be good to go," Grill said. “Boy, oh, boy, you let your guard down on that, and you got a real problem.”
Wright said she hopes someone will take a close look at Rome Charters and its drivers.
“That's why he went to Rome charters, ‘cause any other company would've pulled your driver's record, all of that, you know, and they wouldn't have let him step foot on no bus seeing all of that,” she said.
At a press conference Friday afternoon, DCPS said it had not had issues with the charter company before. The chancellor said when the system enters into a contract with a vendor, it expects the vendor to comply with the requirements of the contract. DCPS said it will do a review and provide training to contractors on expectations.
Reynolds’ next court appearance is planned for Dec. 1.
