The short version
- Bus driver Konrad Jan Tujak in Tromsø put a passenger on the ground so that the police could catch him.
- The incident happened on Monday morning, and was filmed by an iTromsø journalist.
- The driver tells iTromsø that the passenger behaved threateningly, and created a dangerous traffic situation.
- The bus company TIDE Tromsø will retrieve the film and discuss the situation with the driver.
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On the morning of Easter Monday, the police went to the center of Tromsø after reports of a fight between two people on a bus.
The local newspaper in Tromsø mentioned the case first.
Before the police arrived, iTromsø journalist Lars Lillehagen was on the scene. He observed that a man had put a person on the ground, sat on top of him, and held him tightly.
Lillehagen filmed the scene.
– Did not overreact
– Tell him to move! I can’t breathe, shouted the person on the ground.
At the same time, the man sitting on top shouted: “Call the police, mate”.
– Help me! Help me, insisted the man on the hill, to which the man on top replied: “Shut up.”
It turned out that the man who held the other one down is bus driver Konrad Jan Tujak. The person on the ground was a passenger, whom the driver perceived as aggressive.
The police moved out with two patrols.
– I did not overreact. I just sat on him. I wanted the police to come so we could explain what happened. I just held him and I didn’t want him to escape the whole thing, says bus driver Tujak.
He experienced it as a dangerous situation, he tells iTromsø after the incident.
The process was that a man knocked on the route of the bus to be allowed to join.
The bus was then at a traffic light, and the driver opened the door after the man allegedly gestured directly in front of the bus at the traffic light.
– Threatening behaviour
He also allegedly behaved threateningly when he entered the bus, according to Tujak.
– He called me a lot of bad words, and provoked me. I asked him to go out. And said I should call the police, but then he took the phone out of my hand and ran, describes the bus driver.
Also read: Minibus with tourists in traffic accident in Vestvågøy
He turned off the engine of the bus and applied the parking brake. But when he went after the man, he noticed that the bus slid backwards a little on the winter road in the center street.
– He created a dangerous situation in traffic. It made everything more serious. I thought: “No, someone has to take responsibility here”. Because this is not unusual, says Tujak.
He got hold of the passenger and put him on the ground – according to his own statement to ensure that the police got hold of the man.
– Provoking the drivers
Bus driver Tujak adds that his colleagues experience several situations where passengers provoke the bus driver.
Magnar Nilsen is general manager of the bus company TIDE Tromsø. He is informed about the incident. Nilsen has not spoken to the driver yet, but has spoken to traffic management.
Also read: Passenger kicked bus driver
– I suspect that the driver has taken such measures because he has seen the situation as so threatening. And that he has considered the person a risk to himself and others, and has therefore tried to avert the situation, says Nilsen.
He says that not many similar situations have been registered in the company.
– What do you think about the way the driver has behaved?
– I have to talk to the driver first. And then the police come into the picture and investigate the case. We will retrieve film, and follow up with the driver with a conversation about what actually happened, replies Magnar Nilsen.
Operations manager Rune Nilsen in the Troms police district tells VG that a criminal case has been opened. There is no question of personal injuries following the incident.
