Is Busnapping a Real Threat?
The hijacking of a school bus by its own driver has not spurred great concern among school transportation officials, who view the incident as an extre...
The hijacking of a school bus by its own driver has not spurred great concern among school transportation officials, who view the incident as an extremely isolated case. “We’ve heard about bus hijackings, but none of us can ever recall a bus driver hijacking his own bus,” said Michael Martin, executive director of the National Association for Pupil Transportation. At press time, Otto Nuss, the bus driver accused in the hijacking, was undergoing evaluation at federal prison psychiatric unit in Butner, N.C. According to transportation officials at Oley Valley School District, Nuss was behaving normally when he picked up 13 children at Oley Valley High School on Thursday, Jan. 24. He was supposed to transport them six miles to Berks Christian Academy, but instead drove them approximately 160 miles to Landover Hills, Md. Although the students were released unharmed, police found a loaded semiautomatic rifle behind the driver’s seat, covered by a coat. The students said they were never truly afraid. But they had cause to be. Nuss was obviously impaired and acting unpredictably.
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