School Bus Driver Arrested for DUI on the Job

Rolling Meadows, Ill. - A school bus driver who allegedly drove a bus full of students while nearly three times the legal blood alcohol limit has been suspended and charged with aggravated DUI.

Betty Burden, 54, allegedly reeked of booze and had a blood alcohol level of 0.226 when she was arrested Tuesday afternoon in Mount Prospect, prosecutors say.

She admitted downing several vodka and oranges before driving 50 students home from Lions Park Elementary School, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney.

A co-worker noticed the smell on her breath at 2:30 p.m., police said, but Burden's supervisor didn't alert police until 3:45 p.m.

Burden wasn't arrested until she had completed her route and dropped off all of her young passengers, according to Mount Prospect Police. She failed a series of sobriety tests before failing the blood alcohol test, police said.

"What happened was totally unacceptable," School District 57 Board President Joe Leane said.

Officials are investigating the delay getting Burden off the road, he added.

She has been suspended without pay and faces termination at a meeting next week, according to a school district news release. The release said administrators were "outraged."

She was employed for the district from 1991 to 1999 and returned to employment in August 2008, according to a release from the district. She also had a clean disciplinary history.

Burden had passed previous random drug tests, the release said. Bus drivers are not tested for alcohol.

Judge Joseph Urso ordered Burden, of Mount Prospect, held on $10,000 bond during a hearing at Rolling Meadows courthouse Wednesday morning.

A preliminary hearing was set for April 1 at the Rolling Meadows Courthouse, Simonton said.