Thomas MacMillan Photo
A teenage girl sped away from police on a stolen school bus Friday afternoon — and didn’t stop until she crashed into two cars, snarling traffic downtown, police said.
Here’s what happened, according to Lt. Rebecca Sweeney, downtown’s top cop, and other officers at the scene:
Around 4 p.m., an 18-year-old Wilbur Cross High School student stole a bus from the First Student school bus company yard on Middletown Avenue. Employees of First Student followed the bus in a car and another school bus, calling in her location to police as they went. The bus hit a utility pole at one point.
Police caught up with the bus on Grand Avenue. It was not a high-speed chase, but she refused to pull over. She turned left on State Street, then turned around via Fair Street and headed back north on State.
She stopped at a red light on Chapel Street then tried to turn right, but she couldn’t make the turn. She hit an Infiniti M35x that was at the light on Chapel. Then she backed up and hit a police cruiser behind her on State Street. The hood of the cruiser was completely buckled from the impact. The front end of the civilian car was also damaged.
Officer Dave Hartman was in a car with rookie Jaime Franceschi following the bus. When the bus stopped at the light, Hartman jumped out and tried to get the driver to open the door. When she started to pull away, Franceschi pulled the cruiser in front of the bus, blocking her in.
The girl started to run to the back of the bus, then ran back to the front and opened the door. She had to be subdued before she could be arrested, according to Lt. Jeff Hoffman. According to a release by police spokesman Officer Joe Avery, police Tasered the teenager.
The driver of the infiniti (pictured), the cop whose cruiser was hit, and the fugitive driver were all injured. They were taken away in neck braces. The injured officer is Dewlyn Ponteau, a school resource officer.
Meanwhile, police blocked traffic on State and on Chapel until the bus and the two damaged cars could be towed away.
The teenager will face motor vehicle and theft charges.
Maureen Richmond, a Cincinatti-based spokeswoman for First Student, later provided more details:
Just before it was stolen, the school bus was being serviced by a mechanic at the Middletown Avenue lot, which has over 300 buses. The bus had just been transferred from one garage bay to another. The keys were in it. A mechanic noticed the girl walking on the lot and went to tell his supervisor. When he came back, the bus was gone.
All First Student buses have GPS devices that are active when the bus is on. First Student employees followed the stolen bus.
First Student is the largest school bus provider in the country, with 60,000 buses. Richmond said she had never heard of something like this happening before.
