Accused DWI Hit-and-run Bus Driver Facing Upgraded Charges

A Suffolk County grand jury has indicted a woman on more than three dozen criminal charges for allegedly fleeing two crashes last month while driving drunk in a school bus with 10 children aboard on the way to a Baiting Hollow summer camp.

Bus driver Diane Juergens was charged August 3 at Suffolk County court with 38 counts including felony driving while intoxicated, misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child and leaving the scene of an accident as a traffic infraction. She pleaded not guilty.

Riverhead Town Police have said the 61-year-old Ridge woman was driving a bus with campers and counselors from the Baiting Hollow Scout Camp when she fled the scene of two crashes at 4:37 p.m. July 13. There were no reported injuries.

The kids reportedly ranged in age from 6 to 10 and Juergens is slated to be terminated from 1st Student Bus Company of Hicksville. Suffolk County Judge Stephen Braslow released Juergens without bail.