(July 11) -- Police in Washington, D.C., said Sunday they are trying to determine how a teenage impostor managed to take a city bus for a joy ride, picking up passengers before he crashed the vehicle into a tree.
William Jackson, 19, somehow obtained a Metrobus driver uniform and faked his way behind the wheel of a bus at a depot in Bladensburg, Md., police said.
He simply had a fascination with buses, Capt. Ronald A. Pavlik Jr. of the Metro Transit Police Department told reporters.
Pavlik said Jackson took the B-2 bus Friday afternoon and followed its scheduled route through the District of Columbia toward the Anacostia neighborhood.
He did pick up several passengers along the route, Pavlik said. He picked up eight passengers, according to him.
Police said Jackson drove the unsuspecting, paying passengers for about 4 miles before crashing the bus into a tree at an intersection in Southeast Washington, then fled on foot before being apprehended by police nearby. A witness to the crash called police, according to The Associated Press.
The passengers aboard the bus also fled, said police, who have been unable to identify them.
Jackson was arrested on charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle and fleeing an accident.
A top-down review of Metro procedures is under way to determine how Jackson allegedly stole the bus from the depot, The Washington Post reported. Security rules at the facility require bus drivers to present identification to a security guard before taking a vehicle, but Pavlik said he suspects Jackson was simply waved through at the depot.
That scares me a little, Metro rider Mark Trainer told WJLA-TV. I might not be getting on a Metrobus any time soon.
Full story and video here: http://www.aolnews.com/crime/articl...robus-driver-took-vehicle-on-joyride/19549761
William Jackson, 19, somehow obtained a Metrobus driver uniform and faked his way behind the wheel of a bus at a depot in Bladensburg, Md., police said.
He simply had a fascination with buses, Capt. Ronald A. Pavlik Jr. of the Metro Transit Police Department told reporters.
Pavlik said Jackson took the B-2 bus Friday afternoon and followed its scheduled route through the District of Columbia toward the Anacostia neighborhood.
He did pick up several passengers along the route, Pavlik said. He picked up eight passengers, according to him.
Police said Jackson drove the unsuspecting, paying passengers for about 4 miles before crashing the bus into a tree at an intersection in Southeast Washington, then fled on foot before being apprehended by police nearby. A witness to the crash called police, according to The Associated Press.
The passengers aboard the bus also fled, said police, who have been unable to identify them.
Jackson was arrested on charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle and fleeing an accident.
A top-down review of Metro procedures is under way to determine how Jackson allegedly stole the bus from the depot, The Washington Post reported. Security rules at the facility require bus drivers to present identification to a security guard before taking a vehicle, but Pavlik said he suspects Jackson was simply waved through at the depot.
That scares me a little, Metro rider Mark Trainer told WJLA-TV. I might not be getting on a Metrobus any time soon.
Full story and video here: http://www.aolnews.com/crime/articl...robus-driver-took-vehicle-on-joyride/19549761
