NJ Bus Driver Sent To Prison For Driving Drunk With 27 Kids On Board: Officials

SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ — A former school bus driver, who was found guilty of being intoxicated while transporting more than two dozen students home from school, has been sentenced to prison.

Sussex County officials said that Colleen M. Eutermarks was convicted of 27 counts of second-degree child endangerment — one count for each student she transported while drunk in January of 2022. A jury handed down the conviction after a two-week trial, in which they viewed body camera footage and heard from investigating state troopers.

On June 6 of this year, a Superior Court judge sentenced Eutermarks to 14 years in state prison, and also ordered a lifetime forfeiture of her commercial driver's license.

On Jan. 28, 2022. at 5:01 p.m., state police stopped Eutermarks, of Wantage, on County Road 565 at milepost .5 in Frankford. Witnesses reported she was driving the yellow school bus erratically, officials said.

During the stop, troopers determined Eutermarks was driving under influence and arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI). She was the only one on the bus at the time of the stop.

Officials later said that she had picked up 27 students from both Wallkill Regional High School and Franklin Elementary School while operating the bus under the influence, then dropped them off back home.

One of the troopers confronted her about driving the bus while intoxicated, and she fell to the ground after getting off the bus, according to body camera footage obtained by NJ Advance Media.

That report also said that troopers found a mostly-empty bottle of vodka in Eutermarks' purse, and she at first denied having any alcohol before saying she had "just a couple of drinks."

Eutermarks later provided a breath sample indicating that her blood alcohol content (BAC) was .34, officials said. This is more than eight times the legal limit of .04 BAC for a person to operate a commercial vehicle such as a school bus.

Original article —NJ School Bus Driver Drove Drunk With Students On Board, Police Say