This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Davis County School District bus driver who was recently arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence is now asking for a judge to reverse her driver license suspension.
Lycia Martinez, 39, is accused of erratically driving her school bus — carrying about 70 schoolchildren and their adult chaperones — on Oct. 13. Several witnesses, including a chaperone inside the bus, called 911 to report several near-collisions with other vehicles.
"She almost hit this van next to us!" one chaperone told dispatchers as the bus sped through southern Salt Lake County during a field trip to Brigham Young University in Provo. "OK, I am honestly shaking at this point. I'm going to just close my eyes so I see nothing."
After a Utah Highway Patrol trooper pulled the bus over, Martinez was arrested on suspicion of DUI and other charges.
After the arrest, the her license was suspended for 120 days, according to court records filed by her attorney earlier this month.
Now, Martinez is asking for a judicial review of the license suspension, arguing that she suffered memory loss from migraine medication given to her the day after the arrest and was unaware of a 10-day window to request a driver license hearing.
Her attorney, Bradley Schofield, argued in the petition that his client was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs that day, but had suffered from a migraine and was distracted by several radio calls.
"Due to a shortage of bus drivers and confusion for the school district, [Martinez] received several calls on the bus radio regarding her regular route," Schofield wrote. "The radio is above the head of the driver and is difficult to get the microphone in and out of the slot. [Martinez] believes this may have caused the bus to drift."
Schofield said that his client received a shot the following day from her physician to treat her migraine. That medication can cause memory loss, he said.
"Due to [Martinez's] migraine headache that persisted and the added stress of a DUI citation, she did not request a driver license hearing within 10 days," Schofield wrote, adding that Martinez did request a hearing on Oct. 28 when she became aware of the hearing, but that request was denied.
Schofield also noted that a toxicology test on a blood sample from Martinez was never completed because "there was insufficient quantity for testing."
Martinez is asking that both her personal and commercial driver's licenses be reinstated, according to court documents.
She was pulled over near 12300 South and arrested after failing field sobriety tests, according to UHP officials. Officials said at that time that they believed medications, not alcohol, were believed at the root of the driver's alleged intoxication. Four different bottles of pills, for which Martinez had prescriptions, were found in her possession.
Martinez was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of an enhanced class A misdemeanor count of DUI because children under age 16 were on the bus.
She also was booked on suspicion of failing to operate within one lane, a class C misdemeanor. Bail was set at $2,120.
No criminal case had been filed in district or justice court related to the October incident as of Tuesday morning.
Twitter: @jm_miller