SEVIER COUNTY, Utah — The Sevier County school bus driver arrested for DUI while on his route with children on board last week has been fired. However, the question of why the driver was hired in the first place remains unanswered.
David Oldroyd, 57, was taken off his bus Friday after an anonymous tip led the sheriff's office to confront the driver in front of South Sevier Middle School. Although the arrest occurred at the middle school, Oldroyd's bus picks up students from all schools in the district.
"Honestly, it’s surprising because stuff like that, you don’t hear of that very often," said parent Dixie Christopherson.
After being taken off his route to the Sevier County Jail, document say Oldroyd registered a blood alcohol content level three times the legal limit.
"It's terrifying," added Christopherson. "That's terrifying.
"There’s a very good chance that whoever anonymous tipped knew the guy and was throwing a friend under the bus for the protection of the kids."
Court documents who Oldroyd's has been charged with two other misdemeanors involving alcohol just this year. In April,he was cited for drinking in a vehicle while in September 2022 he was charged for intoxication.
"I know the school does very deep background checks," said Christopherson. "I work with the school and I had to go through rigorous background checks before I was allowed to help at the school.
Sevier School District Superintendent Cade Douglas declined to speak with FOX 13 News, but issued a statement explaining how the district's system works. He said all employees are required to undergo a background check and that background check adds the employee to a database that continually monitors them for serious crimes.
While the district added it receives notifications accordingly and investigates immediately, Douglas claims they never received a notification about Oldroyd’s prior misdemeanors.
"It’s sad that something slipped through, but I’m glad that it was caught before anything bad happened," said Christopherson.
Some parents who had students on Oldroyd's bus say they never heard from the district about what had happened. Douglas explained that’s because parents were informed through the middle school’s notification system, meaning parents of elementary school students were left in the dark.
The superintendent said he’ personally reached out to those elementary school parents to explain.
