Gary Dykes says he hopes no parent has to experience the anguish and anxiety he felt over his daughter's safety the morning of September 25th, 2009.

"My heart sank. I didn't know whether she was alive or dead I couldn't get there fast enough. It tears a man up inside." Said Dykes. Billings police say his daughter, 15-year-old Ellie Dykes, was struck that morning by a bus carrying 11 of her classmates. The driver, Tim Whalen, is now facing several felony charges.

Authorities say Whalen’s blood-alcohol-content was well over the legal limit. This wasn't the first incident calling into question school bus drivers in the area, and First Student Bus Services, the Ohio-based company that specializes in contracts for transporting students.

December 2009, First Student bus driver, Debbie Braunstadter, was accused of driving a bus to a liquor store to buy alcohol then later having a student on the bus hide it for her. She resigned shortly thereafter.

School District 2 Superintendent Jack Copps says he's heard from a lot of parents regarding the two drivers. "It just defies common sense." According to Gary Dykes, "It calls a lot of doubt into people's minds."

That doubt over the safety of such precious cargo is resonating elsewhere in the country. KULR-8 News has learned another First Student bus driver, Mario Meschino, was arrested by the FBI in May accused of distributing child pornography in a Chicago suburb. And then in September in another Illinois town, another First Student bus driver, Brian Skoglund, was arrested for taking 41 seventh grade students on a harrowing ride that ended in a crash. One student recalls, "We were almost crashing into the median!"

Another mom, who did not want to be identified, said, "Police were screaming 'stop the bus, stop the bus, get out of the bus' and I'm yelling, my child, these kids!" Skoglund was charged for driving under the influence of drugs.

Are these isolated cases or is there a systematic problem? First Student spokeswoman, Maureen Richmond says, "There is not a systematic problem. I think its very important to look at the numbers when it comes to First Student and that is the fact that we employ 68,000 people and have invested millions of dollars into our background check process to ensure they are very thorough and we're very confident in the process. Our company would cease to exist without our commitment to safety and security."

For School District 2 Superintendent Jack Copps, the recent cases have heightened awareness and are driving up concern. "My God, what do we need to do to make sure this doesn't happen again?"

First Student Bus Services is standing by its commitment to safety.