A Derby man is due in court Wednesday on charges he dozed off behind the wheel of a school bus in Shelton with dozens of students onboard during a scary incident last month.
But according to police, that wasn’t the first time he fell asleep while driving a bus carrying schoolchildren.
The driver, 55-year-old Paul Pixley of Derby, is behind bars while facing a litany of charges in connection with the Dec. 17 incident. It was brought to the attention of police after one of the students riding the bus alerted her father.
In a subsequent interview with police, Pixley allegedy told them he had taken 80 mg of methadone and Nyquil.
“Thinking back he should not have been driving that day,” he reportedly told investigators.
According to a court document in the case, it wasn’t the first time Pixley fell asleep while driving students.
A warrant for Pixley’s arrest written by Shelton Detective Richard Bango says Pixley was also involved in an accident while driving students home Dec. 7.
The warrant says that on surveillance video recorded on the bus Dec. 7, “Pixley can be seen falling asleep and his foot slips off the brake and the bus rolls backward until it strikes a vehicle behind him.”
Asked why Pixley was allowed to drive for more than a week after allegedly falling asleep while driving and causing an accident, Shelton Schools Superintendent Christopher Clouet said that Pixley and a manager at the school bus company, Landmark Transportation, have been dismissed.
The school district is also reviewing its policies concerning accidents and staff records, Clouet wrote in an email.
The city’s police department is also reviewing its own response.
’Panic Amongst The Students’
According to the warrant, officers were sent to Waverly Road Dec. 17 after the father of a Shelton Intermediate School student called them saying he was following the bus, which was swerving “all over the road” because Pixley kept nodding off.
Cops stopped the bus on Nichols Avenue, where Pixley denied having fallen asleep behind the wheel.
Officer Daniel Judkins asked Pixley to turn the bus off, and he complied, according to the warrant — but then had trouble figuring out how to turn off a beeping alarm until he got help from Judkins and another bus driver who was passing by.
Also odd — when Judkins asked for the keys to the bus, Pixley “could not remember that he had put the bus keys in his own pocket and repeatedly argued he had given them to the officer. Finally after checking the same jacket pocket four times, Pixley retrieved his keys.”
A supervisor arrived to finish Pixley’s route, but most of the students had by then gotten off the bus early because they were scared, students told police.
“The bus driver would nod off but at one stop he completely fell asleep and they had to wake him up to keep going,” the warrant says.
When police viewed surveillance video from the bus days later, the footage corroborated the students’ accounts.
The warrant says the video also shows Pixley sleeping for more than 10 minutes earlier that afternoon before his first run driving kids home from Shelton High School and can also be seen “incoherently talking to himself” while en route to Shelton Intermediate School.
He also allegedly nodded off at a red light at a busy downtown intersection — Coram Avenue and Center Street — during which his foot slipped off the brake and the vehicle rolled into the intersection before Pixley woke up and regained control after about 30 seconds.
The warrant says the video shows that Pixley fell asleep even as students were boarding the bus at SIS — then fell asleep at least a half-dozen more times as the 30 or so 12- and 13-year-olds were thrown about in their seats by his erratic driving.
“You can’t sleep on the bus!” one girl yells.
“I’m going to call my mom,” another says.
“Most students are on their phones at this point (and) it appears panic amongst the students is setting in,” the warrant says.
Mixed Up Meds?
Pixley’s odd behavior continued as he was being driven from the scene back to the bus company’s headquarters on Riverdale Avenue for an immediate drug and alcohol test.
The man driving Pixley told cops Pixley tried to get out of the car twice on the way back to the bus company. When they got back to the bus yard, Pixley walked away without entering the building.
Police spoke with Pixley again Dec. 27 at his Derby home, where he initially denied falling asleep while driving the bus, before admitting he was tired when police told him that they had video showing him sleeping.
Pixley told police he had taken 80 mg of methadone because “he had a drug problem in the past but does not now.” Asked if he disclosed his methadone use while applying to be a bus driver, Pixley said he didn’t believe he was asked about it.
He told police the methadone doesn’t make him sleepy, and that “he thinks he mixed up Nyquil instead of Dayquil because he was sick that day” before he eventually conceded that he shouldn’t have been behind the wheel.
Prior Accident
The warrant says police also asked Pixley about the Dec. 7 accident — during which video shows him falling asleep and allowing the bus to roll backward into another car — but Pixley “did not have a response.”
Bango said in an email Wednesday that the investigation into the Dec. 7 accident is closed.
According to an accident report in the case written by Officer Eric White, the crash occurred about 2:30 p.m. at Maple Avenue and Leavenworth Road.
There were 17 students onboard the bus at the time, but none were injured, nor was Pixley or the other driver.
The report says Pixley told police “he was stopped and believed he had his foot solidly on the brake pedal to keep the bus stopped.”
“He did not know what happened or why the bus moved backwards and hit the car behind him.”
The report from the Dec. 7 accident makes no mention of the bus’ video system, footage from which allegedly showed Pixley falling asleep when it was reviewed after the Dec. 17 incident.
The Valley Indy emailed Interim Police Chief Shawn Sequeira Thursday (Jan. 12) asking whether he thought the Dec. 7 incident was investigated adequately.
On Tuesday (Jan. 17) Sequeira’s administrative assistant called the Valley Indy and said that Sequeira had ordered several internal investigations in connection to the case.
The results of those probes will be available publicly in two to three weeks.
’Program-Eligible’
Pixley faces 30 counts of risk of injury to a minor — each count a class C felony punishable by up to 10 years behind bars — in addition to single misdemeanor counts of breach of peace, reckless endangerment, and reckless driving.
In a legal filing objecting to cameras being allowed in the courtroom for Pixley’s Dec. 28 arraignment, Public Defender Jonathan Gable noted that Pixley had no prior criminal record.
Article continues after video from NBC Connecticut covering the arraignment.
“It appears that Mr. Pixley is program-eligible,” Gable wrote, referring to pretrial diversionary programs available to first-time defendants that, if completed, usually result in the dismissal of criminal charges against defendants.
If Pixley did seek to enroll in such a program, a judge would ultimately rule on the application — after giving prosecutors and victims a chance to object.
The Valley Indy left a message for Gable last week.
The day police announced Pixley’s arrest, the school district sent a statement to reporters saying it was “grateful to the Police Department for their focused investigation that is bringing a resolution to the incident that endangered our students’ safety.”
“The School System will insist that Landmark Transportation adhere to established security measures to ensure our transportation provider’s procedures observe strict driver guidelines,” the school district’s statement went on.
Pixley is being held in lieu of $75,000 bond at Bridgeport Correctional Center, according to Correction Department records.
