Bus Driver Saves Barefoot Toddler

TriMet bus operator Bill Clark says he’s no hero; that he did what anyone should do when he spotted a toddler in the middle of the road heading for a busy intersection.

Operator Clark was driving a Line 20 bus westbound on northeast Division Street in Gresham about 8:15 a.m. on Friday morning, May 23, when he saw a small child walking in the middle of Linden Avenue and heading straight for Division. Video from the bus captured just how perilously close the boy was to the busy street.

Clark quickly stopped the bus and went out to check on the boy, who was barefoot in only a diaper and t-shirt. Clark did not see a parent or anyone else with the boy so, as the video shows, he took the boy’s hand, walked him to the bus and lifted him inside.

The boy quickly went to a front seat and climbed up. Clark contacted TriMet’s Operation Command Center. Since the bus was blocking the street, he was instructed to go to the Gresham Central Transit Center just a few blocks away where police met him.