As someone who takes public transportation day in, day out, I know how many people I’m used to seeing every day. And at rush hour? It’s shoulder to shoulder. I can read line for line the book my neighbor is literally holding in his hands along with him if I want to. I can only imagine how many interactions a bus driver must have with the general public. Throngs of people loading and unloading the train, the bus, the subway. In a big city, it’s a constant stream.
I know of many drivers who make friends with their day-to-day passengers because they see them almost every day. It’s amazing how many people they may meet and how many conversations they have all the time. I’m sure at times, with the foot traffic being high in volume, drivers forget their interactions and what’s going on around them.
So for a bus driver, in the thick of it all, to get a strange feeling about a man and child amongst all the people he sees every day is quite telling about who he is as a person, and how strong his feeling really was.
It was just another day on the job for Tim Watson, a Valley Transportation Authority bus driver in San Francisco. It was on that specific day that a 3-year old boy was reported missing from a library outside of the city. As people were getting on and off his bus, Tim noticed a child with a man who maybe could have matched the description of the child gone missing – but he didn’t think too much of it.
It was when the young boy started crying moments later, that it caught the driver’s attention. As a dad of two, he could feel something was up and wanted to investigate further. Rather than doing anything too hasty, Tim figured he would pull over the bus, and walk down the aisle in search of a lost “backpack.” This tactic would buy him enough time to actually see if the child matched the description – plaid shorts and red shoes, which he was – and then secretly call the police.
When the bus stopped at the station, the police were there and ready to take care of the rest. Needless to say, there was a very emotional and happy reunion between the boy and his family. It was at that point that Tim realized what he had just stopped from happening, and needed a moment to reflect on his own life and kids. This was a tragedy completely averted. What an incredible man to have paid so much attention!
Click below to watch the news segment of this heroic story and clever man.
