LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville woman suffered a broken neck, shoulder, forearm and pelvis in a crash with a school bus in the west end, and the bus driver's prior drug conviction slipped through the cracks when he was hired, a new lawsuit claims.

Kim Petty filed the lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court earlier this month, claiming the driver, Aaron Helton, should have never been hired by Jefferson County Public Schools.

"Due to no fault of her own, (Petty) is living with permanent, catastrophic injuries," Bo Bolus, Petty's attorney, said Tuesday.

The Louisville Metro Police Traffic Collision Report attached in the lawsuit says the bus was traveling north on Dr. W.J. Hodge Street when he collided with Petty, who was going west on Market Street. LMPD officers arrived on scene to find Petty's car pinned against the bus with "severe damage" to the driver side. 

According to the report, two witnesses to the crash told police the school bus ran the red light. According to the complaint, "Helton claims to this day that he had the green light."

Bolus said Tuesday the evidence reveals more than just Helton running a red light. He said Helton should never even have been hired due to his prior drug conviction.

Court documents filed alongside the lawsuit show Helton was convicted in Wyoming in 2019 of two counts of felony possession of a controlled substance and one count of conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance. According to the documents, while in a rental car after flying to San Francisco and driving to Wyoming to visit friends, police pulled Helton over for speeding and found 27 packages of "suspected marijuana" in a trash bag as well as nearly $5,000 in cash. He received a two-year suspended sentence with two years of supervised probation.

Helton had worked as a driver for JCPS prior to his conviction according to Bolus. After a break, Helton returned.  

"I believe he returned to JCPS after he was arrested but before he was convicted," Bolus said. "He did not tell them about it."

JCPS doesn't hire bus drivers with felony drug convictions on their record, the lawsuit claims, but the background check on Helton reportedly came back clean since it only covered what may have happened in Kentucky. Bolus said state law and JCPS policy require national criminal background checks for bus drivers.

"His supervisor said had he known about that felony drug conviction, he would not have been driving that day," Bolus said. "He would've been sent home."

The other issue Bolus raised Tuesday is what followed the crash. Helton wasn't drug-tested, which Bolus said goes against district policy, and the evidence in the case shows Helton was just ordered additional training by JCPS.

Bolus compared that aspect of the case to Ally Rednour, who was 7 years old when a JCPS bus dragged her about 1,000 feet after the exit door shut on her backpack as she tried to de-board the vehicle.

"Amazingly, that bus driver was also not drug tested," Bolus said. "... And, despite the fact that JCPS policy mandates drug testing (of) bus drivers post-accident, two cases, people almost killed — one a student, a child, another, an innocent third party, operating the vehicle on the road — and in neither instance was a bus driver drug tested."

Bolus hopes the case can bring closure to Petty and hold JCPS accountable.

"To not meet the minimum standard of state statute and JCPS policy of national criminal records check and drug testing is asinine," he said.

JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio was named a defendant in the case alongside Helton. A district spokesperson said the district can't comment on pending litigation.

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