Driver Lisa Byrd was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and 12 counts of endangering the welfare of a child
A New Jersey school bus driver who allegedly overdosed on heroin passed out behind the wheel and crashed the vehicle into a tree while taking 12 students with special needs home from school, police say.
None of the students were injured in the slow-speed collision captured on a video surveillance camera at a Newark intersection on Wednesday.
“This is a pathetic situation with children,” Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said at a news conference. “The mayor is outraged about the endangering [of] these children in the city.”
Police said the driver, 57-year-old Lisa Byrd, was unconscious behind the wheel when they arrived at the scene and needed to be revived with a shot of Narcan, which is commonly used to counter the effects of opioid overdose.
The incident occurred at about 1:10 p.m. as Byrd was transporting the students, who police said ranged in age from 5 to 13, home from the 14th Avenue School.
Video showed that the driver failed to make a required turn at a “T” intersection, and instead rolled the bus through the intersection and into a small tree.
A search of the driver’s records revealed that her license previously had been revoked from 1996 to 2006, but police did not say why.
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Byrd was arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, driving while impaired and 12 counts of endangering the welfare of a child, police said.
She currently is being held at the Essex County jail, records show. It could not be determined if she’d entered a plea or retained an attorney to speak on her behalf.
“Endangering the lives of Newark children is something we will not tolerate,” Mayor Ras J. Baraka said in a statement released by the city’s Department of Public Safety. “We are grateful that none of the students were injured and that no other residents were harmed due to this incident.”