Teen steals Washington Metro bus, picks up fares, hits a tree

Washington - Police investigators are working to discover just how a teenager was able to bypass security and board an empty bus at a city bus depot. The teen then took a seat behind the wheel and drove away, picking up passengers before slamming into a tree.

William Jackson, 19, was also able to obtain a Metrobus driver uniform and possibly a drivers credentials and identification or similar ID and then get behind the wheel of a bus at the depot in Bladensburg, Md., say police. "He simply had a fascination with buses," Capt. Ronald A. Pavlik Jr. of the Metro Transit Police Department told reporters. Jackson took the B-2 bus Friday afternoon and followed its scheduled route through the District of Columbia toward the Anacostia neighborhood. "He did pick up several passengers along the route," Pavlik said. "He picked up eight passengers, according to him and all of them paid and took a seat on the bus." Police say that Jackson drove a few more miles with the unsuspecting passengers aboard before crashing into a tree and fleeing from the scene. Passengers were waiting when transit police arrived and were able to assist city police in the direction the suspect had ran as well as in identifying him once he was captured. Jackson was arrested on charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle and fleeing an accident. Metro Transit Police Department have stated that security rules at the facility require bus drivers to present identification to a security guard before taking a vehicle, but Pavlik said he suspects Jackson was simply "waved through" at the depot and this problem has residents of the District concerned with public safety.