Osborne sped 21 miles over the speed limit in a school zone while driving a school bus in 1996, and he backed up his bus on a one-way street and hit a car last May, records show. DeKalb's assistant director for safety and training, William J. Bast, recommended terminating Osborne in December after the district received its third citizen complaint, this time for running a red light, according to a county document. The district should have given him more training instead of the boot, he says. He still wants to drive a bus. While Bast would not excuse Osborne's driving record, he explained every state in the country is facing a shortage of school bus drivers.
Health insurance is the main attraction.
But that's still no excuse for poor driving, he said. I'm in favor of getting rid of these turkeys. Limited access hides details Despite their knowledge of some of Osborne's problems, DeKalb officials were surprised when they learned the length of his record. In Minnesota, school districts can pull up driver histories going back to the 1980s on a computer for a monthly fee, said Barb Anderson, the state's assistant director for pupil transportation. But DeKalb couldn't see the total picture on Osborne.