District to Take Over if State Can’t Improve Bus Driver Investigations

Reacting to the arrest of a school bus driver in Encino, the Los Angeles school district is making plans to check the criminal record of every bus driver hired by private contractors if the state does not stiffen its own licensing procedures.

West Valley school board member Julie Korenstein said Wednesday the proposed change comes as a result of the Jan. 16 arrest of Laidlaw Transport bus driver Harold Keith Lone.

Lone was charged with driving with a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit. Lone allegedly obtained his bus driver’s license by using an alias to conceal his record of several criminal convictions, as well as at least four drunk driving convictions.

“We have to be absolutely sure that the people driving our children are the very best, without any prior criminal records or without any type of alcohol abuse,” Korenstein said.

State agencies already fingerprint and perform background checks on prospective drivers, but the state has been criticized for taking too much time to complete the checks.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said last week that the three state agencies responsible for fingerprinting, conducting criminal checks and issuing school bus driver licenses--the California Highway Patrol, Department of Justice and Department of Motor Vehicles--have agreed to speed up procedures and to stop issuing temporary licenses.

In another action designed to improve bus safety, Korenstein said the Los Angeles district also will require bus transportation contractors to report all school bus accidents, even those that do not involve children or substantial property damage, district officials said.

Laidlaw Transport Vice President Howard Wallack said his company would comply with the changes if they are implemented.

The Assembly Transportation Committee will open a hearing today into hiring practices and supervision at Laidlaw Transport, a Canada-based company which is the largest transportation contractor in Los Angeles.

Lone was seen by another motorist driving erratically and was arrested while waiting to pick up children at the Lanai Road School.

A district investigation completed Monday showed that a parent had written a letter this fall complaining about Lone after her children’s bus arrived an hour late on the first day of school. That letter was kept at the school and never forwarded to district officials as is required.

A second Laidlaw driver was arrested Feb. 2 in San Diego on suspicion of drunk driving after crashing a school bus into a pickup truck, injuring three people. A third Laidlaw driver was charged in Los Angeles Feb. 6 with misdemeanor counts of carrying a concealed weapon and a loaded weapon in public.