School bus driver quits, apologizes for driving bus while drunk

EL PASO, Ill. -- A school bus driver accused of drunken driving while transporting a basketball team resigned and said he "let a lot of people down."

Alan L. Cline, 54, was charged with two counts of aggravated driving under the influence, at twice the legal blood-alcohol limit, after shuttling a 22-member high school girls basketball team and two coaches from El Paso to Eureka on Oct. 2.

The El Paso man resigned Wednesday, a day before the District 375 School Board scheduled a dismissal hearing. He apologized in his resignation letter. It was his second DUI arrest this year, and he is automatically barred from driving for a year.

An El Paso bar employee said Cline stumbled out of a bar earlier in the day that he was to drive the basketball team. Cline had assured the employee that he did not have to work that day. After driving the team, Cline admitted to his supervisor that he should not have driven. The supervisor called El Paso police, who alerted Eureka police. Eureka police woke Cline in his vehicle in a school parking lot.