Driver more than four times over legal limit with bus 'filled with school children' escapes prison

A school bus driver who was more than four times the limit when he was driving a bus “filled with school children” has narrowly escaped going to jail.

Describing the offences by Peter Gray as “appalling”, District Judge Mark Hamill said they could well have resulted in “catastrophic” consequences.

He told the 43-year-old the “only thing” saving him from a prison sentence was that he was undergoing a mental health crisis at the time.

As Gray admitted two offences of driving with excess alcohol within the space of two months, once on the school bus in March and again in Asda carpark in May, the judge imposed an 18 month probation order along with 200 hours of community service and a five year driving ban.

At an earlier hearing at Newtownards Magistrates' Court, Gray, from Drumadoon Drive in Dundonald, entered guilty pleas to drink driving on 11 May and 19 March this year.

Opening the facts of the offences on Wednesday, a PPS lawyer told the court it was around 4.30pm on 19 March when the Education Board asked the police to go to the Ulster Hospital due to reports that “a bus driver had been driving while intoxicated”.

The bus was at the hospital, “there were children on board” and when officers spoke to Gray “he appeared intoxicated”.

A blood sample was taken from him and an analysis gave a reading of 331, more than four times the limit of 80.

Turning to the 11 May this year, the lawyer said police were sent to a report of an RTC in Asda carpark in Dundonald and when they arrived, Gray was in the driver’s seat of a VW Golf.

He failed an initial preliminary breath test and an evidential sample gave a reading of 189, more than five times the legal limit of 35.

Before defence counsel Conan Rea began his plea in mitigation, Judge Hamill said the facts were “appalling” and could have resulted in “catastrophic” consequences.

He revealed that according to the pre-sentence report Gray “had thoughts of killing himself and the children”.

Mr Rea told the judge “all of that has to be conceded”, adding that having consulted with Gray for quite some time, “the factual matrix in this case is very concerning and appalling is probably the best that can be said about it, he accepts all of that”.

Further conceding that Gray’s driving career “is effectively over,” the barrister said his best points were that the defendant had entered guilty pleas at the earlier opportunity, had no previous convictions of any sort and it as clear from the reports that at the time, he was undergoing a mental health crisis.

“He accepts that he had taken alcohol, he gets the shakes and he pulled over and brought himself to the attention of the authorities and then he had more alcohol,” said Mr Rea.

He argued that given the points in mitigation and despite the custody threshold being crossed, “it may be in everyone's interests that he is supervised and assisted by probation.”

Passing sentence, Judge Hamill said it was clear that Gray was mentally not well “and I do not want to impose custody on someone who is ill but this could have been catastrophic.”

“I’m trying to do something constructive here but this could have been a Crown Court case with a tragic outcome,” said the judge.

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