School bus drivers: the frightening figures of alcohol and drug checks carried out since Monday in France

This Monday, February 2, no fewer than 9,000 checks were carried out on school buses. Of these thousands, 49 of them tested positive for drugs or alcohol. Several were subsequently taken into custody. This large-scale operation continued this Wednesday, particularly in Pontoise (Val-d’Oise),

Nearly 9,000 checks of school buses have been carried out since Monday, revealing 49 drivers who tested positive for drugs or alcohol, announced Jean-Noël Buffet, Minister of the Interior, on Wednesday.

In a press release, the Minister explained that at the request of Bruno Retailleau, “8,999 school buses had been checked” on Monday and Tuesday“with in detail 8,366 alcohol tests and 8,270 drug tests”. Over these two days of checks, “49 drivers tested positive (44 for drugs and 5 for alcohol)”.

After the death of a 15-year-old high school student last Thursday in Chateaudun (Eure-et-Loir) in a bus accident in which twenty students were injured, Bruno Retailleau had asked the prefects and security officials on Saturday to carry out “large-scale control operations” with screening of school transport drivers.

A “very firm” policy

The driver who was at the wheel of the bus during the accident fatal Thursday was indicted and placed under judicial supervision after blood tests confirmed he had consumed cannabis.

Concerning the 49 drivers who tested positive during the control operations on Monday and Tuesday, they are “all subject to prosecution and a suspension of their driving licenses pending their judgments”, Mr. Buffet stated in his press release. “Several have been placed in police custody”, he added. “No child should be taken to school by a driver driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Our policy will be very strict, it is one of zero tolerance”, Mr. Buffet said.

Read also: Fatal school bus accident in Eure-et-Loir: the driver had consumed cannabis resin, his police custody extended

While these control operations were planned to last a week, Mr. Buffet said that they would “continue in the weeks to come come”.

According to the latest figures from the National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory, in 2023, 126,828 offences related to driving after using narcotics were recorded (+8.1% compared to 2022, +158.1% compared to 2017). Of the almost million drug tests carried out in 2023 (968,102 precisely), 13.7% were positive.