Camp bus driver pleads guilty to multiple DWI counts
Diane Juergens outside Suffolk County Court in Riverhead last summer. She had a blood alcohol content of more than three times the legal limit at the time of the crashes, prosecutors have said.
Credit: James Carbone
A bus driver from Ridge has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of driving while intoxicated after she crashed twice last July while taking Cub Scouts from a Calverton camp and then fled the scene, Suffolk County prosecutors said Friday.
Diane Juergens, 62, had a blood alcohol content of more than three times the legal limit at the time of the crashes, prosecutors have said.
“This defendant’s actions put the lives of many people and children at risk,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a news release. “We are satisfied knowing that she has faced justice and is no longer behind the wheel.”
On July 13, authorities said, Juergens arrived at the Baiting Hollow Scout Camp in Calverton in a full-size school bus to take campers home. The bus was boarded by 10 children and one teenage counselor before Juergens pulled out of the camp and onto Sound Avenue. The campers were all under age 11, according to the release.
At the time of the crash, Juergens, who had a blood alcohol content of 0.30%, failed to stop and pick up other campers at a second location, prosecutors said after her arrest last summer. When the counselor told Juergens she had passed the children, she attempted to make a U-turn, struck a stone pillar and knocked it over, prosecutors said.
Juergens didn’t stop and continued east on Sound Avenue, where the bus collided with a GMC Yukon, prosecutors said. She again failed to stop and drove past campers she had passed earlier and returned to the camp where she had picked up the 10 Cub Scouts and their counselor. The Cub Scouts and the counselor were not injured.
When Juergens was arrested, police found an empty beer bottle near the driver’s seat of the bus, prosecutors said during her initial arraignment in August.
Juergens pleaded guilty to 20 felony counts of aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child, 10 counts of misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child, and other charges.
She is due back in court on June 14 for sentencing.
Juergens' attorney, Dennis Lemke, could not be reached for comment Saturday.
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