Minnesota DUI for bus driver on the job
Here's a story about the bus driver in the Minneapolis area who got arrested for a Minnesota DUI. Since driving a bus in Minnesota requires a commercial driver's license, it shouldn't matter whether the person is "on duty" or "off duty" when the DUI occurs. You see, ANY DUI results in a one-year revocation of a commercial driver's license (CDL). A second DUI in a lifetime results in a "lifetime" revocation of the CDL, although there are certain ways around the "lifetime" revocation being forever.
Here's the story:
Off-duty DWI not always end of bus job: "Metro Transit said the DWI arrest last month of a driver in his bus was a first in its history and quickly fired him for 'gross misconduct.'
Yet it's not nearly so rare that Metro Transit drivers are arrested for off-duty drunken driving. Nor does it automatically mean the end of their bus-driving careers.
Since July 2006, 14 off-duty drivers have been charged with DWI, said Bob Gibbons, Metro Transit customer services director. Of those, nine lost their jobs after the state suspended their driver's licenses. Three others were transferred to non-driving jobs within the agency. Two drivers were able to get their licenses reinstated within about 30 days and quickly took the wheel of a bus once again.
Metro Transit puts the burden on drivers to maintain valid commercial driver's licenses and pass regular drug and alcohol tests, rather than taking disciplinary action for any traffic violation. But the March 21 arrest of Alonzo V. Martin in his Route 5 bus has jolted the transit agency into reevaluating its hiring and alcohol-testing practices, including whether it should look back further than three years for traffic violations and DWIs before hiring a driver.
The agency is also planning to get 'more involved, more engaged' when drivers commit traffic violations in their buses, Gibbons said.
'A bus operator arrested while in service has not happened in our history,' he said. 'It's clearly a major safety violation.'
But Michelle Sommers, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, said federal laws already dictate extensive policies of alcohol and drug testing and tougher penalties for traffic violations by commercial drivers. A recent change in federal rules mandates a one-year suspension of a commercial driver's license for a DWI conviction, so she expects few bus drivers in the future will be able to keep their jobs if convicted of drunken driving."
A DUI arrest for a person with a CDL is typically career ending. In this economy there is virtually no chance of keeping a CDL required job in the near future if you get a DUI of any type today.
Minnesota DUI law does not govern licensing in other states. For that reason, a non-Minnesota licensed driver who gets a DUI while passing through MN will probably lose their CDL in their home state if their home state finds out.
