Guardia Civil Trafico officers set up controls on Monday to specifically check on school buses. At around eight in the morning, a bus was stopped at the roundabout by a Llucmajor secondary school. The driver was tested for alcohol and drugs; he was positive for both cocaine and heroin.
As officers hadn't noticed anything wrong with his driving of the bus - the check was random - he wasn't detained. However, he was given a 1,000 euros fine and will have six points withdrawn from his driving licence.
There were a large number of pupils on the bus at the time. They were asked to leave the bus and make their way to the close-by school before the tests were carried out on the driver. Despite the apparent seriousness of the tests' findings, the Guardia Civil is not obliged to have to inform the bus company.
However, the driver himself has gone public. He gave a media interview yesterday in which he emphatically denied that he has ever taken drugs. He explained that when a second test was to be made in order to verify the first, it couldn't be done because the machine wasn't working. He believed there was either a malfunction with the first test or that he had eaten something that was contaminated.
He stressed that he has never tested positive for any form of test and that he has no "record". He has paid privately for another test to support his case.
Controls of school buses are continuing for the rest of the week. In addition to alcohol and drugs checks, the campaign is paying attention to vehicle speed and the use of mobile phones. According to figures from the general directorate for traffic, there were 32 accidents involving school buses in 2016. These resulted in seventeen injuries and no fatalities.
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