On Tuesday, the 66-year-old bus driver was taking a school route home when he came across a police impairment checkpoint set up in Portobello Rd, on the Otago Peninsula shortly after 3pm, Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond, of Dunedin, said.
He underwent breath testing procedures and recorded a breath alcohol level of 345mcg — the legal limit is 250mcg.
Police also discovered the bus had no valid Certificate of Fitness (CoF).
The Ministry of Education confirmed they contracted the school route to the company and the driver had been stood down, effective immediately.
Go Bus said employees were prohibited from consuming alcohol before or during shifts, and the team felt "let down" by what had happened.
A Dunedin man, who the Otago Daily Times agreed not to name, was also driving through the impairment checkpoint with his wife in the car when he said he saw the bus stopped on the side of the road and the driver being spoken to by two officers.
He identified the bus company as Go Bus.
The bus appeared to be carrying disabled students, he said.
"We both hoped we weren’t seeing what we thought we were seeing."
He said Go Bus should have a "whole omelette, not just an egg," on their faces.
"That bus driver was carrying the most precious of cargo — our youth."
Ministry of Education operations and integration hautū (leader) Sean Teddy said the incident was deeply concerning.
He said the bus driver who failed the breath test was stood down, and would not be permitted to operate any Ministry transport service in the future.
"It is completely unacceptable that students were put at risk and we are taking this matter extremely seriously," he said.
The driver was not allowed to continue with the route and Go Bus organised another driver to come out in another vehicle and transport the students safely home.
"We have had discussions with the transport provider to seek assurances that they are meeting their contractual requirements, and that they have robust processes in place, including ensuring that all their vehicles have current Certificates of Fitness.
"The ministry expects all transport providers to operate within legislation and to have clear rules around the safe operating of services, including the consumption of alcohol," he said.
Go Bus chief operating officer Ben Barlow said the matter was under investigation.
The vehicle’s CoF had recently expired, and they were reviewing their processes to understand how this occurred and to prevent it happening again.
"The safety of our staff and passengers is our highest priority, and we are reviewing processes to prevent this type of incident from happening again.
"We apologise to everyone impacted."
