Cheerleaders Left Stranded By Allegedly Drunk Bus Driver

HORIZON CITY, Texas — It was supposed to be a routine trip for a group of Horizon City cheerleaders heading to a competition in Las Vegas, but what happened on the way back has many parents upset.

A group of about 30 people was left stranded in the tiny Arizona town of Wickenburg for seven hours while their bus driver, 61-year-old Alejandro Lopez, headed to jail on drunk driving charges. Lopez was arrested by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

The grouparrived back in El Paso Monday evening. Parents were concerned about what happened and thankful they were back.

“When I woke up, the bus had stopped and there were police cars all around,” one girl said.

Charlie Young, the cheerleading coach of Cheerplex, said he chartered a Los Paisanos bus and two drivers for the competition.

On the way back he says he noticed the driver swerving back and forth when the driver hit a stop sign and broke the side mirror.

That’s when Young called the Highway Patrol and forced the driver to pull over.

“I know that if we would’ve just relaxed and gone to sleep ourselves…things could have been very different,” Young said.

The group remained at a McDonald’s outside Wickenburg, Arizona, for seven hours.

Young said police found the driver to be under the influence of alcohol. According to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, Lopez’s blood alcohol content level was over.15. He was charged with 17 felony counts of aggravatedDUI (passenger under 15), one for every child under 15 on the bus, and five misdemeanors.

ABC-7 stopped by the Los Paisanos bus office Monday, but the receptionist said she didn’t know anything about the incident and referred us to an attorney. Messages left to the attorney were not returned by airtime.

One good thing — the Cheerleading Time are the 2009 champions for All-Star Cheerleading.