Utah school bus driver arrested, suspected of driving students while intoxicated

MONROE, Sevier County — A Utah school bus driver was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, with students on board, after an anonymous complaint.

David Arnold Oldroyd, 57, was booked into the Sevier County jail last Friday, suspected of driving while intoxicated with six or more elementary-aged children while heading to a middle school to pick up more students. Oldroyd’s breath test resulted in a .15 at 2:20 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 15 according to court documents.

One year prior, court documents show, Oldroyd was arrested on Sept. 17, 2022, for intoxication and possession of a handgun while intoxicated after calls of shots fired in Austin, Utah — also in Sevier County. The affidavit says Oldroyd’s speech was slurred and he was unbalanced while he held a beer and talked to a deputy.

Friday, a Sevier County Sheriff’s Office deputy acting on the anonymous tip found busses pulling into the South Sevier Middle School’s student loading area, according to court documents. The deputy said he boarded one bus to to talk to Oldroyd, smelled alcohol and found more than a dozen students on the bus.

With help from school employees, the students were moved to other busses and the deputy continued to talk to Oldroyd.

“While talking to Dave (Oldroyd) I could still smell a strong odor of alcohol coming from him,” the deputy states in an affidavit of probable cause. “Dave was a little unsteady on his feet as we walked to the side of the bus. I also noticed that his eyes were blood shot.”

Oldroyd agreed to a field sobriety test and told the deputy he last had an alcoholic drink the previous night. He tested positive for an on-scene breath test before he was taken to the county jail and provided the breath sample that showed a blood-alcohol content at .15, far above Utah’s .05 driving-while-intoxicated standard.

The deputy said there were more than a dozen students on the bus when he arrived, but the middle school students on the bus hadn’t been driven anywhere. The deputy stated he believed more than six of the students were elementary-aged students who had been picked up and driven to the middle school by Oldroyd to get more students. He was arrested on six counts of driving under the influence with a passenger under 16.

Sevier County School District released the following statement:

Sevier School District was made aware of a bus/transportation concern on Friday, September 15, 2023, and immediately responded by halting the bus route and notifying the appropriate authorities. Parents of students assigned to the bus were also notified immediately that their children would be coming home on a different bus (buses were combined). A new driver has been assigned. Please contact the Sevier School District Office with any further questions, thank you.