Minnesota bus driver admits being extremely drunk when she crashed with 45 students aboard

A Chisago County woman has admitted to being drunk when she crashed a school bus with dozens of students aboard one morning early this year.

Kara Jean Ffrench, 60, of Harris pleaded guilty Wednesday in District Court to a gross misdemeanor count of driving a commercial vehicle with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of at least 0.04% on Feb. 15 while taking Rush City students to school.

A preliminary breath test administered by law enforcement at the scene along Game Avenue measured Ffrench’s BAC at 0.199%, according to the criminal complaint. Two later tests that morning came back at 0.17%.

No injuries were reported among the 45 students who were on the bus at the time. About two-thirds of them were elementary school age and the others in high school, the criminal complaint read.

Sentencing for Ffrench is scheduled for Nov. 6.

According to the complaint:

A sheriff’s sergeant arrived at the crash scene and saw the bus, its engine still running, stuck on the edge of a cornfield after striking a basketball pole.

The sergeant was a distance from the bus when he detected an odor of alcohol coming from Ffrench as she sat behind the wheel. She denied having been drinking and explained that she had trouble finding the brake before the crash occurred.

Ffrench exited the bus holding a plastic water bottle and a coffee mug. The sergeant smelled the odor of alcohol coming from the mug.

Surveillance video in the area showed Ffrench backing the bus into the basketball pole three times in an effort to get out of the cornfield.