Sunday, April 17, 2005

Bus Driver Plus Wine Blamed For Wild Ride

April 17, 1947
Santa Monica

Mrs. Thomas Wright of 2425 29th St., Santa Monica, only intended a short trip by bus, but driver F.O. Rogers, 27, was loaded and wanted company. He compelled the lady to remain on his bus as he looped erratically through downtown Santa Monica and back to her home.

"It was the wildest ride I ever had!" said Mrs. Wright, once safely in the company of Officers Robert Chapman and Kenneth Aitken. A bottle of wine was found in driver Rogers' possession, and investigation physician Dr. R. J. O'Donnell determined that he was intoxicated.

Pleading guilty before Judge Thurlow Taft of the Santa Monica Municipal Court (bail set at $250, probationary hearing scheduled for April 30), Rogers blamed his Mr. Toad-like behavior on "war nerves," which had bedevilled him since suffering injury in the South Pacific with the Navy.

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