A 15-year-old girl yesterday told of her terrifying experience of having to jump from a speeding bus to escape an assault by the driver.
The young girl said she flagged down a bus full of passengers Saturday afternoon and took the only available seat, which was directly behind the driver.
She was on her way to her father’s home. During the trip, however, she noticed the bus driver looking several times in the mirror at her. She began to get anxious when everyone got off at their stops, leaving only her and an elderly woman as the passengers.
“When only me and another lady was left,” she explained, “he came off his route and took a short cut to get to Market Street. When the lady got off, I was the last one on the bus.”
She said the driver began to make inappropriate statements like, “there is nothing nicer than a young girl,” and othet comments which made her uncomfortable.
“The driver reached behind his seat and started rubbing my thighs,” she continued. “I yelled out ‘Bus stop’ very loud, but he didn’t stop and then started going even faster.”
When she realised the bus was not going to stop she ran to the door and jumped out, skidding ascross the asphalt on her stomach and rolling to the side of the road.
She said after she stopped rolling she got up and ran as quickly as she could under the circumstances to the nearby Baillou Hills playing fields.
“I ran to the fields hoping to catch my daddy,” She said, “but he wasn’t there. The guys who were there said he was coming right back for the 5pm game and they asked me what happened when they saw how I looked.”
To her horror, she said, the bus driver rushed to the area where they were gathered and asked her why she jumped off the bus. It alerted the attention of the men nearby, who happened to a police softball team.
“He tried to make it seem like he didn’t do nothing,” she said. The men apprehended him and took him into police custody.
Source: Kilah Rolle, The Tribune
