CARLTON, Minn. – The driver of a charter bus carrying 35 kids to summer camp was charged with being drunk at the wheel on 66-proof cinnamon-flavored Fireball whisky. Patrick Bullard, 49, of Cannon Falls, was stopped on Interstate 35 after a motorist reported the bus weaving shoulder to shoulder and almost going into the ditch. The trooper who stopped the bus said Bullock crossed a lane of traffic to stop. The trooper called Bullard “very unsteady on his feet.” A field sobriety test put his blood-alcohol level at 0.26% — more than triple the state-allowed maximum of 0.08%. The kids on the bus, ages 11 to 14, and two adult chaperones, peered out the windows as the arrest came down. This was late Sunday morning near Carlton, 20 miles west of Duluth. A 1.75 liter bottle of Fireball was in Bullard’s backpack, the trooper said. A plastic container next to the driver’s seat contained a mixed beverage that smelled like Fireball, the trooper said. Bullock too smelled like Fireball, the trooper said. One chaperone said Bullard had been drinking from the container.
Cinnamon whisky. Bottle, one third empty, confiscated from driver’s backpack. Advertised as “red hot.”