Germantown School District: Intoxicated driver's ed instructor crashes car with student passenger
GERMANTOWN, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A driver's ed company has been suspended from Germantown School District premises after officials say an employee of "Just Drive" driving school drove onto Germantown High School grounds while intoxicated Monday, Jan. 6.
Germantown police were called to a crash involving a driver's ed vehicle that had backed into a gate post just before 3 p.m., with a student driver passenger. Police say the gate then struck the school principal in the abdomen, causing minor injuries.
”He thought that the driver might be intoxicated so he made an immediate phone call to our School Resource Officer who got a hold of myself,” said David Huesemann, a lieutenant with the Germantown Police Department.
Germantown police say they were shocked to see the results of the breathalyzer test they did on the driver's ed instructor, Corey Malone. Police had to do a second reading to make sure the machine wasn’t broken, because it read four times the legal limit.
”Veteran law enforcement officers, we looked at this and it was kind of surreal, we’re going 'is this really an accurate reading?,'” said Lieutenant Huesemann.
Malone is an instructor for ‘Just Drive’ driving school.
He went to the high school to pick up a 16-year-old male student before he crashed into the gate. By the time police got to the high school, Malone had already driven the car back to ‘Just Drive’.
Students were in shock after hearing what happened.
"I am completely in shock about the whole situation, that’s very unfortunate what happened to him. I feel very bad for that student that was in the car and that had to experience that,” said Grace Kelley, a junior at Germantown High School.
"Having children, it is shocking to the conscience -- of having a driver’s ed instructor with a student in the car being intoxicated,” adds Lieutenant Huesemann.
Police reports say management at ‘Just Drive’ had noticed the smell of alcohol on Malone before he went to the high school, but Malone denied he was drunk.
Kelley, who was part of the ‘Just Drive’ evening program last year, says it could’ve ended worse.
”I had one from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and there’s not many people at school then, so if that just happened one-on-one that could’ve ended very badly,” Kelley says.
”If there would’ve been a student there, if this operator of the vehicle could’ve lost control, we could’ve been looking at a fatality,” Lieutenant Huesemann says.
Police are not pursuing hit and run charges, but Malone will face his first OWI offense.
The school district has banned ‘Just Drive’ from school grounds until further notice.
In a statement, the district says:
“Although we are pleased to report that no one was ultimately injured, the District felt that immediate action was necessary.”