UPDATE: Saskatoon man describes chasing stolen city bus with child driver

“I looked through my rear-view mirror and I saw this same kid in behind the driver’s seat of this bus.”

As Pritchard turned around in his truck to get a good look of the boy, the youngster drove away from the maintenance shop on 25th Street and Avenue D.

“It was like, what? So I ran out to the alley and he had already hit the first bus,” he said.

Pritchard said the kid drove up Avenue D before turning east on 28th Street where he hit a vehicle.

“He at least stopped at Idylwyld. There was traffic coming. I don’t know if he stopped at all from when he took the bus till when he got to Idylwyld. He kept going,” Pritchard said, adding he followed the boy, trying to get in front of him to stop him.

The bus tires got hung up on the curb at Idylwyld Drive, which gave Pritchard enough time to pull in front of the bus. Pritchard said as he was trying to pry the bus doors open, the boy was looking at him and trying to take off.

“He was still hitting the gas. I finally got the door open and I told the kid, I said to get out of the bus. He was like, ‘OK.’ He was clenching onto a $5 bill. It was like he was going somewhere, like McDonald’s or something,” Pritchard said, laughing.

The city transit supervisor showed up within minutes, he said, with the police shortly behind.

Saskatoon transit says “human error” is to blame for the joyride. The bus had been left running in the shop and safety checks had been disabled.

Jeff Jorgenson, general manager of transportation and utilities for the City of Saskatoon, told the media over the weekend that the bus had been left in an unsafe condition and safety protocols were not followed.

“There’s no way that something like this should happen. This is not a case where a person can come in and take a bus. You would need to know what you’re doing in order to get a bus moving,” he said.

No one was injured in the incident.

Because of his age, the boy will not face charges and he was taken home by police.

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by paNOW

UPDATE: Saskatoon man describes chasing stolen city bus with child driver

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