The suspect in the school bus accident from last month was arrested and incarcerated last night.

On December 16th members of the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office, Stafford County Fire and Rescue and Stafford County Public Schools responded to an accident in the 1300 block of Brooke Road involving a Stafford County school bus. The bus had left Grafton Village Elementary School for the afternoon drop-off and at the time of the accident had a driver and 12 students on board. The investigation revealed a northbound Volkswagen Jetta attempted to overtake the northbound school bus across the double yellow lines. The Jetta struck the side of the school bus and overturned. The Jetta proceeded to strike a southbound Dodge Durango head on. The school bus went into the embankment and overturned onto the driver’s side. Two students and the drivers of both the Jetta and Durango were transported to the hospital for their injuries.

The Traffic Safety Unit responded to the scene to investigate the accident. After consultation with the Stafford County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, charges of reckless driving and inhaling drugs were presented to the grand jury on January 3rd for the Jetta driver. The grand jury found sufficient evidence to send the charges to Circuit Court and a Capias arrest warrant was issued for Michael Kingham, 30, of Stafford.

Before deputies were able to serve the Capias, Deputy J.W. Ahern responded to a single vehicle crash last night at 8:59 p.m. near the intersection of Cathedral Lane and Mine Road. The driver was identified as Kingham and he was arrested on the outstanding warrants. Deputy Ahern obtained additional evidence to obtain a new warrant for inhaling drugs. Kingham was served the outstanding warrant, as well as the new warrant, and held at the Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond.

During the ongoing investigation of the school bus accident, Kingham was found unconscious on December 30, 2022 in a vehicle at the Walmart at 217 Garrisonville Road. Deputies used an ASP baton to break a window on the vehicle and check his welfare. Kingham was subsequently arrested for public intoxication and inhaling drugs. He was held at the Rappahannock Regional Jail until sober and released the following morning.

Thank you for your patience as we navigated the evidence in this case. Thank you to all the witnesses that assisted at the scene of the school bus crash and helped reunite the children with their families.