‘We’re going to wreck,’ student says before Bartow bus driver’s DUI arrest

A Bartow County bus driver who was taking students home Friday afternoon was arrested and charged with driving a school bus under the influence of alcohol, a felony, officials said.

Lori Hagaman, 51, was pulled over by police on U.S. 411 north of Cartersville after 911 calls came in to report concerns about her driving just before 4 p.m., according to the incident report provided by the Bartow sheriff’s office.

“We’re on the school bus. I think our bus driver is going crazy or something. She’s all over the road. She almost hit a ditch, and she almost hit a car,” one student on the bus said in a 911 call provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a records request. “She’s going to hit the rail. We’re going to wreck.”

Hagaman “appeared to be confused” and “had very slurred speech” when approached by officers. She failed multiple field sobriety tests and kept falling over, deputies said in the incident report. Inside the bus, they found a cup in the cupholder with “what appeared to be an alcoholic beverage,” the report said.

She was booked into jail Friday and charged with 29 counts of reckless conduct — one for each student on the bus, according to the sheriff’s office. She also faces felony DUI and open container violation charges, the sheriff’s office confirmed.

Hagaman posted her $30,200 bond and was released Monday, the sheriff’s office confirmed. She did not respond to a request for comment.

“The safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority, and we do not tolerate any behavior that compromises that commitment,” the district said. “Any individual found to endanger our students will be fully prosecuted and permanently prohibited from employment with the Bartow County School System.”

The school district’s transportation department requires several layers of review when hiring drivers, the district said. The process includes commercial driver’s license pre-employment drug testing, a CDL bus endorsement and physical examination, a motor vehicle record review and a criminal background screening, along with ongoing drug testing during employment.

One parent, who had a child on the bus when it was pulled over and another child on the same driver’s earlier elementary school bus route, told deputies the driver had missed several bus stops on both routes, according to the incident report.

“Can I get off the bus?” the unidentified student pleaded with the 911 operator as deputies pulled it over. “She’s not even walking straight.”

Another parent said her son told her the bus almost crashed into multiple cars and that students “had to yell at her to stop the bus due to her passing their stops,” the report said. Neither of those parents was identified in the report.

Counseling services are available for impacted students, the district said.