TORONTO – A stunt captured on video of a man hitching a free ride while hanging onto the back of a York Region Transit bus in Markham, Ont. may land him in hot water.
Transit officials are investigating after dashcam video of the incident, which took place around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, was posted on YouTube this week.
“It was shocking. It’s a very unsafe act and we were very concerned about the incident,” said York Region Transit Director of Operations Rick Takagi.
The video appears to show a male clinging onto the rear of the number 90 bus traveling northbound on Don Mills just past Steeles Avenue East.
The description in the video said a black SUV ended up flagging down the driver of the bus just north of Simonston Boulevard.
The male then allegedly jumped off the bus and sprinted toward the bus stop.
Jamie Jolliffe, the man who recorded the video on his vehicle dashcam, told Global News in an email that he was awestruck when he saw what had happened.
“At first I had to do a double-take,” he said. ” Then I wanted to get behind the bus to record, but at the same time as you can see in the video, I stayed several car lengths back just in case he fell.”
Jolliffe said he was concerned for the man’s safety as he was hanging off the bus’ rear engine flap.
“I’m pretty sure that flap is not designed to hold the weight of a human hanging off of it,” he said.
Jolliffe said the man didn’t seem injured after jumping off the moving bus.
“As soon as the bus was forced to stop by the SUV, the man jumped off and sprinted down the road,” said Jolliffe.
“He just stood there waiting for the bus to arrive, like nothing had happened! Not sure what happened after that, as I didn’t want to block traffic and had to get to work myself.”
Takagi said the bus driver has since been interviewed on the incident.
“He did recognize that a SUV had flagged the bus down. When the bus had stopped at the side of the street and awaited, the SUV continued on,” said Takagi. “There was actually no contact with the driver of the SUV.”
Takagi said the on board bus security video is being reviewed which may lead to the man’s identification.
“Most of the video cameras are facing forward of the bus. So it’s possible we may have captured something on videos but that has yet to be determined,” he said.
Although the time stamp on the video shows it was taken in 2010, the person who posted it indicates the recording was made on Nov. 3 of this year.
Transit officials said their enforcement team, as well as York Regional Police, have been notified of the incident for further investigation.
“We will be working closely with Viva to investigate this incident to determine what exactly took place and who this individual is,” said York police in a statement.
“What is depicted in the video is obviously a very significant safety concern for that person himself and also for vehicles around the area.”
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