Article: School bus driver takes passengers to police station

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From the Courier Mail click here!

School bus driver takes passengers to police station

School bus driver takes passengers to police station
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Tanya Chilcott

February 25, 2009 11:00pm

A VETERAN bus driver who drove his out-of-control student passengers to the police station for a dressing down has attracted widespread praise.

Police have called Westside Bus Company driver Graham King "brilliant", a school principal has commended him for his strict message to their students and the public registered support for him online in their hundreds.

However Mr King said he had originally worried he might get into trouble over the incident, in which he drove unruly students from St Edmund's and St Mary's College at Ipswich to the Yamanto police station on Tuesday afternoon.

"They were refusing to put seatbelts on," Mr King said.

"They were told to sit down and behave themselves ... (but) within a couple of kilometres they were running around the bus and they started pegging things.

"Something hit me in the back of the head, which I didn't know at the time what it was, so I pulled over and stopped.

"I rang Operations and they asked me if it was dangerous, which it could have been if it had gone through the windscreen or knocked me out - we could have ended up having a serious accident."

The offending object turned out to be a hard-boiled lolly, but Mr King said it could just as easily have been a cricket ball.

"Safety is my biggest issue," he said.

"I don't know if you have ever seen where a child has gone through a windscreen or a glass window and seen what sort of mess (is made).

"Well I have ... and I don't want to see it again."

Ipswich Police District Inspector Kevin Keillor described Mr King's decision to involve them as "fantastic".

Insp Keillor said police had already attended two accidents involving school buses - including one fatal crash - in their district during the past couple of weeks and Mr King's action had ensured that there wasn't another.

St Edmund's College principal Brendan Lawler said Mr King's decision was a positive one and students now faced disciplinary action.

St Mary's College has denied their students were involved.

couriermail.com.au readers have expressed their support for the driver, with one giving him a "big pat on the back" and another saying his actions deserved applause.

"What a brilliant chap the driver is!", wrote Camille of Brisbane.

"Good on him.

''The culprits should have been put in the lock-up for half an hour!!''