Public Safety

School bus driver arrested on DUI charge after backing into car with six children aboard in Crestview

A 62-year-old Crestview woman driving an Okaloosa County School District bus was arrested Friday after a low-speed crash and a breath test showing 0.048 BAC.

Jared Williams

A school bus driver was arrested Friday on a DUI charge and six counts of child neglect after she reportedly backed an Okaloosa County School District bus into a vehicle stopped behind her in Crestview, police said.

Mechelle Prevoznik, 62, of Crestview, was driving the bus near the intersection of 8th Avenue and Ferdon Boulevard, also known as State Road 85, when the crash occurred at 1:35 p.m., according to a news release from the Crestview Police Department.

Six children were on the bus at the time. No injuries were reported, which police attributed to the low-speed nature of the backing accident.

Responding officers said they smelled the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Prevoznik and opened a DUI investigation. She showed signs of impairment during field sobriety tests, according to the release, and later provided a breath sample that registered a blood alcohol content of 0.048.

Prevoznik holds a commercial driver’s license to operate a school bus. In Florida, CDL drivers cannot have a BAC of 0.040 or higher, the department noted.

She was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and six counts of child neglect without bodily harm, and was transported to the Okaloosa County Jail without incident.

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