New footage of a woman accused of driving a school bus while drunk shows her yelling at children and telling them she’s “totally crazy.”
Catherine Maccarone, 48, was arrested for driving under the influence earlier this month after a 5th grader on her bus called 911 from their ride home to tell police she was drunk and driving through multiple red lights.
The incident occurred on a weekday afternoon in Longview, Wash., during a day on which Maccarone had reportedly driven roughly 90 kids home from school. She resigned from her job with Longview Public Schools last week.
Now, footage obtained by KGW-TV has shed new light on the situation. The video, shot during the day of Maccarone’s arrest, shows her talking aloud to herself, then speaking to a bus full of high school students.
The video starts with Maccarone alone, saying she drives buses because her marriage “sucks” and her husband is “a son of a gun.” Later, she can be seen addressing the bus full of students, seeming to slur her words as she calls herself “crazy” and tells them she graduated from college three separate times.
“I am crazy. I’m totally crazy. I am so fun crazy because I love life,” she says in the video.
The younger students who were on Maccarone’s bus during the day of her arrest also seemed to sense something was wrong.
“Her eyes, you could tell she was drunk. Her breath sort of smelled like alcohol,” the boy who called 911 told the dispatcher.
When police pulled her over, Maccarone’s Breathalyzer results showed she had a blood-alcohol content of 0.096 percent, more than double the 0.04 legal limit for bus drivers in Washington.
“There is no way that cheap beer is still in my system. That drink my uncle made must have had some kick in it,” Maccarone told police after she was arrested.
Maccarone told police she had not run any red lights while driving the bus, adding that her behavior may have been because of anti-anxiety and sleep medication she was taking at the time.
Officers, however, said they could smell an “obvious” odor coming from the 48-year-old. Police have said more charges are expected to be filed against Maccarone.
“This incident we take very seriously and our number one priority is safety and security for our kids,” Rick Parrish, a spokesperson for the Longview School district said of the incident.
Maccarone’s trial is set for Nov. 22.
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