Eunice man booked on DWI 3 after his truck plows into school bus

A Eunice man whose pickup crashed into the back of a stopped school bus in Kinder last week is charged with third-offense DWI as well as possession of illegal drugs and paraphernalia.
Dustin Richard McGowen’s previous DWI arrests include at least one in Eunice, that on April 24, 2010.
The incident last Tuesday injured two children on the stopped bus as well as the bus driver.
State Police Troop D reported officers responded at 3:42 p.m. to the accident on La. Highway 383, about 2 1/2 miles west of Kinder.
The truck driven by McGowen was traveling west on La. 383, and an Allen Parish school bus was lawfully stopped in the lane of travel with red warning lights illuminated and stop signs deployed to drop off children, police reported.
Troopers at the scene suspected impairment by narcotics and brought in a State Police drug recognition expert who determined that McGowen was impaired. McGowen would not agree to submit a toxicology sample, police said.
A “no refusal warrant” was then obtained from a state district judge.
Once issued, a no refusal warrant allows a law enforcement officer to take an uncooperative driver to a qualified medical professional in order to obtain a toxicology sample without the driver’s consent.
A toxicology sample was taken from McGowen and will be submitted for analysis. The crash remains under investigation.
McGowen was charged with DWI third offense, three counts of negligent injury, illegal possession of Xanax, illegal possession of drug paraphernalia, careless operation and failure to wear a seatbelt.