Exclusive: MTA driver accused of driving bus while drunk speaks out

WESTBURY (WABC) -- An MTA bus driver accused of driving a bus drunk on Long Island is talking to Eyewitness News about his arrest.

Alexander Copeland, 52, was arraigned in Hempstead on aggravated DWI charges Monday, and he says he doesn't remember anything about that day.

"Don't remember the trip in, don't remember the depot, don't remember the stop," he said.

Copeland says all he knows about what happened the afternoon of Sunday, September 13, is what his co-workers tell him.

"I was told I showed up at work, said what day it was, was told it was a different day," he said. "I was going to be given the first run, somebody else took that run. I was waiting for my time to do the second run. And I fell and hit my head."

He says he doesn't remember taking the bus from the MTA depot in Jamaica and driving it onto the Northern State Parkway.

Police received several calls from drivers about an MTA bus driving erratically around exit 32. When police pulled Copeland over, they say he had a blood alcohol content of .20.

"He's not saying anything to that right now," attorney Neville Mitchell said when asked if Copeland denied drinking. "If we're talking about Sunday, absolutely he didn't drink. There's no doubt about that. But whatever he did on Saturday and Friday and all of that stuff and absorption of alcohol into the blood stream, that's going be the focus of why we're here and what we're doing."

Mitchell says Copeland takes several different medications, and they need to see if those had any effect on the Breathalizer.

"We're very grateful, he is and his wife is, very greatly that this happened without incident," Mitchell said. "Without any loss of life, without any accidents."

The judge suspended Copeland's license, and he's been suspended without pay from the MTA. An administrative hearing with the MTA is scheduled for Tuesday. He was diagnosed by two different doctors as having suffered a concussion that day.