A school bus driver was arrested Wednesday morning for allegedly driving while impaired in northeastern Minnesota.

According to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, 17 South Range students were on board the impaired driver’s bus when he was pulled over near Saginaw.

In a news release, the sheriff’s office said a “concerned citizen” called just after midnight Wednesday to report an off-duty St. Louis County School District bus driver was consuming alcohol. The citizen was concerned “he was highly intoxicated and would not be sober by morning when he would likely begin his route.”

Deputies contacted the driver at his home at 6 a.m. Wednesday and the driver assured them he would not work later. The sheriff’s office also informed the school district.

An hour later, the school district told deputies that the driver was, in fact, on his route. Deputies pulled him over “without incident” on Independence Road just north of Seville Road in Saginaw, according to the news release.

The driver was arrested on pending charges of second-degree DWI and operating a school bus with evidence of alcohol present in the person’s body, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office said all 17 children on board were students at South Ridge School near Alborn and were “uninjured and doing well.” Their parents were notified, and school district staff arrived to “take custody” of the bus and children.

While the sheriff’s office said official blood test results “will not be available for quite some time,” a preliminary breath test recorded the driver had a blood alcohol content of 0.16 — twice the legal limit to drive a typical motor vehicle. However, Minnesota law forbids school bus drivers from having any amount of alcohol in their system while operating a school bus.

On Wednesday, the driver remained in the St. Louis County Jail.

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