Portland Transit Driver Ryan James (ATU 714) Helps Lost Boy Find His Family

PHOTO: Greater Portland Metro driver Ryan James with ATU 714 President/Business Agent Joe Thomas.

One day this summer in July, ATU 714 member Ryan James was driving his bus through downtown Portland when traffic ground to a halt near St. John Street. As he looked to see what was causing the back up, he noticed a man getting out of a van and running into the road. He returned shortly after holding the hand of a little boy wearing just a T-shirt and diaper and left him on the sidewalk. The child couldn’t have been more two or two and half, James thought.

“I was like ‘what’s going on?’ At first I thought he was trying to kidnap the kid and then I realized he was just trying to get the kid out of the road,” recalled James. “I was stopped in the road and he came up to my door and I just instinctively opened it and said ‘I don’t know where your parents are, but you’re safer on this bus than you are outside.’”

The little boy got on the bus and calmly sat down in a middle seat as the confused passengers looked at each other, trying to figure out what was going on.  James had driven for Greater Portland Metro for seven years and had never encountered such a situation. Prior to that, he had worked at Hannaford where he had a couple Code Adamswhere a kid went missing in the store, but usually was found in the bathroom or hiding in a shelf. But in this instance, the parents were nowhere to be seen.

A woman who had ridden the bus before sat with the boy while James called dispatch for instructions on what to do. The boy was quiet and appeared undisturbed as the woman asked him questions and tried to keep him comfortable.

The dispatcher told James to drive down to the bus hub on Elm Street where the police would meet them. When he arrived, James gave a statement to the police while they tried to ask the boy where he was from. He didn’t know his address, but he was happy and smiling, perhaps enjoying the attention. James then drove off and finished his route. Later he found out that someone had called the police about a missing boy matching the child’s description and he was reunited with his family, not far from where James picked him up. James later thanked the passenger who looked after the boy and kept him calm on the bus while he drove him to the Elm Street hub.

“I have two kids of my own and I can’t imagine just misplacing them, but it would be good to know that if that happened there will be people looking out for them,” said James.

He learned later that the best thing to do when encountering a lost child is to stay in the same location and wait for the police to arrive, but he did the best he could under the circumstances and followed the dispatcher’s instructions.

“I’m just glad nothing bad happened and the kid got home safely,” said James.