GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Highway Patrol said a Greene County school bus driver was driving under the influence when she crashed her school bus Wednesday afternoon.
The crash happened just after 3:30 p.m. on Mount Carmel Road in Mosheim.
According to the THP report, there were five students on board at the time. No one was hurt.
The report says the bus went off the right side of the road, up an embankment, and flipped on to its left side.
The driver was identified as 55-year-old Sandra Bible Lamons of Bulls Gap. She was charged with first-offense DUI, simple possession, and failure to exercise due care.
On Thursday, Lamons pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Greene County director of schools David McClain said she has worked for the school system for more than 20 years as a bus driver.
"Certainly, any time you have a bus accident that's not something we enjoy hearing every day. It's always things we're concerned about, but in reference to her and Greene County Schools, right now she's suspended without pay," McClain said.
THP said it obtained a warrant for a blood test, which will be sent to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation along with pills troopers said they found at the scene.
McClain said school bus drivers are randomly drug tested, saying Lamons did not have a record for any previous incidents.
"If what I'm hearing is true, she's made some bad decisions and certainly, once again, it's our job to keep kids as safe as we can while we're in control of those kids and while they're in Greene County schools," he said.
Lamons told the judge Thursday she would be bonding out of jail. She's due back in court on March 25.