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CMS bus drivers fired for cocaine, falling asleep at the wheel, district data reveals

Data analyzed by WCNC Charlotte shows school buses in the Carolinas crash, on average, eight times every school day. No district has more crashes than CMS.

Nate Morabito (WCNC)

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Published: 6:37 PM EDT August 14, 2024
Updated: 9:45 AM EDT August 15, 2024

School buses are widely considered one of the safest forms of transportation, but a WCNC Charlotte investigation found the carriers of our kids are involved in crashes eight times every school day, on average, in the Carolinas.

No district in those two states has more crashes than Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. In fact, crash records show it's not even close.

While district data shows many of the crashes are not bus drivers' fault, personnel records show CMS fired a handful of school bus drivers last year alone for everything from falling asleep at the wheel while driving students to testing positive for cocaine.

State records show the number of bus crashes across the Carolinas in recent years has only minimally decreased. Crash data reported by school districts to their states and analyzed by WCNC Charlotte reveals some crashes continue to send kids to the hospital and in rare cases, leave other people dead. Those are just the ones we know about.

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