Substitute Driver

A shirtless man hijacked an Atlanta public school bus with about a dozen students aboard Thursday and then jumped out of the driver's seat as the bus careened down a steep hill. Yeah, I think that's a solid reason not to turn in that homework assignment tomorrow.

Arris Pitmon (23), jumped into the stopped bus through a window as a student was being dropped off in a southeast Atlanta neighborhood. He overpowered the woman bus driver and took control of the steering wheel, and then left the seat to chase the driver, who had run to the rear of the bus. A student attempted to take the wheel, but Pitmon fought him to regain control of the bus. The bus continued down the road throughout the ordeal, leaving the roadway and crashing through a fence and finally stopping at a wall about 175 feet off the pavement. All the while, screaming students from Forrest Academy jumped out of the bus through the emergency exit in the back. Two students and the bus driver were injured.

Authorities didn't say whether Pitmon had a relationship with the bus driver, or why at the time he was arrested after the crash he was naked. Surveillance video from a nearby gas station showed the shirtless suspect crouching and fidgeting as he walked through the lobby before jumping aboard. A cashier there said Pitmon came in and seemed to be looking for someone at the store. "Suddenly, he was doing crazy things...he was sitting down, he was trying to grab a customer's feet."

I'm not clear why the driver and the student didn't stop the bus. Pitmon was going for the wheel...just apply the brakes and stop moving. When the bus isn't moving, you can escape it a lot easier. It's not like it was Speed. BTW, anyone want to gamble and say "Arris Pittmon" of "Atlanta" is black? Just making a guess...