Two brothers who operate a Paterson-based school bus company were arrested this week after they were accused of employing unqualified drivers, including some with suspended licenses, arrest records and criminal convictions, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office announced Thursday.
The pair was also accused of knowingly misrepresenting the qualifications of their company, its drivers and aides in order to be awarded contracts to transport students by multiple school districts, including the Paterson, Jersey City, Mahwah, River Edge, and Franklin Lakes Public Schools, among others, authorities said.
The brothers allegedly submitted documents listing the names of certain drivers and aides that would purportedly staff school bus routes, when in fact other employees who were not properly licensed, and who in some cases had criminal backgrounds, were driving the students to and from school while the listed drivers were assigned elsewhere, according to a statement from the office.
The brothers and their alleged accomplices, none of whom were named, employed several drivers who did not have valid commercial driver’s licenses or did not have CDLs with the required endorsements to carry children as passengers, authorities said. Some of the drivers had suspended licenses, and in some cases, even though mandatory records of fingerprinting, background checks, and drug testing were incomplete, drivers were nonetheless allowed to transport students.