UPDATE: Dover bus driver charged for driving students while under the influence

Maryland State Police have arrested a commercial bus driver for reportedly driving students while under the influence of alcohol in Talbot County.

According to reports, at about 5:30 P.M. Wednesday, 45-year-old Joseph Johnson, of Dover was driving students and chaperones back to Bennett Middle School after a field trip to Calvert Cliffs. Police say, that’s when a citizen following the bus called 9-1-1 after witnessing the bus weaving on Route 50.

As troopers were in route they reportedly received another call from a parent chaperone on the bus, who said they were pulled over near Porpoise Creek Road in Trappe, after adults on the bus convinced Johnson to pull over and wait for troopers to arrive.

Johnson was taken into custody and was charged with DUI. The Maryland State Police have not release results of blood alcohol testing until his case goes to trial.

A sober driver from Dawson Tour Bus Services, Inc., of Camden was summoned to the scene, and reportedly drove all 30 children and ten adults back to Bennett Middle School safely. While the children were waiting, a trooper apparently treated them all to pizza he purchased and delivered to the scene along the shoulder of Route 50.