Runaway Bus Driver Arrested At Toll Plaza: Police

CECIL COUNTY, MD - A runaway bus driver from Virginia was taken into custody this week at the Tydings Bridge toll plaza in Maryland, police said.

Charter bus company employee Mellat Zerihun Kassa, 24, had ignored her route, did not pick up any passengers, was not answering her phone or radio and was driving through Maryland when the bus company notified authorities, police said.

Her employer, Virginia-based Potomac & Rappahannock Transportation, was tracking the green and white Omni bus through GPS and alerted the Maryland Transportation Authority that she may be in distress.

After 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday, when a trooper from the Maryland State Police JFK barrack located the vehicle and attempted a traffic stop on Interstate 95 north in Harford County, police said Kassa sped up and wove through traffic to get away.

After crossing the bridge connecting Harford and Cecil counties across the Susquehanna River, she was taken into custody at the Tydings Bridge toll plaza, where she had driven the charter bus into a lane for passenger vehicles only.

Kassa, of the 14400 block of Watson Lane in Woodbridge, Virginia, got out of the vehicle as directed and was arrested for stealing the charter bus, officials said.

She was the only person aboard, according to authorities, who said no injuries were reported in connection with the incident.

As of Friday, police said that Kassa was being held without bail at the Harford County Detention Center.

File photo of Perryville toll lanes by U.S. Department of Transportation.