Suspended bus driver at gym when we came knocking

A follow up to Wednesday’s school bus accident involving an 80-year-old driver. It prompted us to look into the qualifications necessary to drive a school bus.

WWAY’s Nadine Maeser tried to speak with the driver Otis Hames at his home today. Hames’s wife Eliza answered the door. She told us her husband had just left for a morning work-out and was at the gym.

“I wish you could have seen him,” Eliza Hames said. “An 80-year-old man. Everyone thinks he’s 60.”

Otis Hames did not return a message we left for him today.

School administrators tell us they can’t discriminate because of age, and there is no maximum age for school bus drivers. They simply have to pass state issued requirements, including vision tests and a medical examination.