CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - More than 40% of school bus drivers in the corridor’s four largest school districts have at least one traffic violation since 2000, according to a KCRG-TV9 investigation.

A Cedar Rapids school bus driver was charged September 21 with failure to yield to a pedestrian after she struck an 84-year-old woman in a crosswalk. An 11-year-old boy was killed October 31 when he walked in front of his school bus in rural Janesville.

Prompted by the accidents, KCRG-TV9 checked the names of corridor school bus drivers on Iowa Courts online to identify the ones with criminal convictions and traffic violations.

Drunken driving, assault, disorderly conduct, child endangerment and theft are just some of the criminal convictions in bus drivers' pasts. And 40% of corridor school bus drivers have at least one traffic conviction since 2000. “This was news to me,” said Chris Swehla, of Iowa City, whose daughter rides the bus to and from City High. “I would venture to say few, if any, parents know what the driving records are.”

Linn-Mar had the highest violation rate with 47% of bus drivers having at least one traffic infraction since 2000, while Cedar Rapids is the lowest at 37%.

School districts check applicants’ driving records through the Iowa Department of Transportation, run criminal histories and check for applicants’ names on registries for sex offenders and child abusers.

Most districts require bus drivers to report any citations or traffic accidents immediately, even if the violations happen in their personal vehicles. Cedar Rapids, Linn-Mar, Iowa City and College Community do ongoing checks for drivers already on the road.

Cedar Rapids bus driver Vicki Laird, 43, is barred from driving a school bus while the district investigates the September 21 collision. She has no other traffic or criminal convictions and said she was blinded by the morning sun when she struck Bonnie Nielsen. Nielsen suffered broken bones and a serious head injury, her family said.

Research by the Center for National Truck and Bus Statistics at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute shows that previous traffic infractions are linked to future crashes. CDL drivers with two or more speeding offenses or two or more serious offenses were involved in 40 percent more crashes than drivers without previous crashes or offenses, according to the center’s study of more than 190,000 Michigan CDL holders from 2001-07.