Bus Driver Outwits Hijacker

Smart thinking by a school bus driver resulted in the arrest of a 29-year-old suspected hijacker who had forced her at gunpoint to drive about 200 miles from Compton, authorities said.

About five hours into the drive, the 49-year-old bus driver, whose name was not disclosed by police, feigned that she was a diabetic and needed to stop to eat or she would pass out. No children were aboard the bus.

When the driver pulled over at a rural rest stop off Interstate 5 near Avenal, in the Central Valley, she grabbed the bus keys and ran into the restroom, seeking help from other motorists, police said. A couple ushered her into their trailer and called police.

About an hour later, Fresno County sheriff’s deputies arrested Christopher Lee Andrews of Los Angeles near Coalinga, a few miles north of the rest stop. He was wanted for parole violations on unknown charges, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Steven Schuh, who added that Andrews was also wanted in connection with another carjacking.

The bus driver was shaken but unharmed, police said. An employee of a private bus firm contracted by the Los Angeles Unified School District, she had been warming up the bus in a Compton-area lot about 5 a.m. before starting her route, when a man jumped in, stuck a hard object in the back of her head and said to “drive or I’ll blow your head off,” Schuh said.

The man told the driver that he knew her name and address from her checkbook and other items in her purse and that she would be harmed if she called anyone. Police recovered a pellet gun from the bus.