Passengers on a tour bus were left shaken after the driver "looped" through suburban streets to shake off another driver in pursuit. Photo / 123RF
Passengers on a tour bus were left shaken after the driver "looped" through suburban streets to shake off another driver in pursuit. Photo / 123RF
Passengers on a tour bus were left traumatised by a man who pursued the 50-seater vehicle in a chase through suburban streets in the belief it had damaged his parked car.
Ryan Jay Mills had minutes earlier overtaken the bus and then forced it to pull over and stop on a busy state highway, but his attempts to speak to the driver were thwarted when he wouldn’t open the bus doors.
Mills then pursued the bus as it began to drive loops around “random suburban Nelson streets” as the driver tried shaking Mills off to prevent him from knowing where the tourists were staying.
His attempts at speaking to the bus driver gave rise to “a very unusual incident”, Judge Jo Rielly said.
The roundabout on SH6 at Annesbrook, Nelson where Ryan Mills was in pursuit of a tour bus he claimed had damaged his parked car. Photo / Google Maps
She said Mills, who had a history of poor driving, could have taken the bus’ registration and notified the company, but instead, he chose to drive dangerously, and while forbidden, to try and get the driver’s attention.
At one point Mills began filming the bus, as a passenger filmed him when the driver refused to open the doors.
The 36-year-old engineer appeared in the Nelson District Court on Wednesday for a scheduled judge-alone trial but entered a late plea to charges of driving dangerously and driving while prohibited after a charge of endangering by criminal nuisance was withdrawn.
The police and defence also sought an amendment to a “confusing” driving disqualification order made at an earlier appearance by Mills.
In May last year, Mills was stopped while driving in Richmond and found by police not to have a valid driver’s licence. He was forbidden to drive until he got a valid and current licence.
‘Quite traumatised’
At about 8pm on January 29 this year, Mills was driving his ute between two busy roundabouts on SH6 at Annesbrook, just south of Nelson City, at the same time as a Scania 50-seater bus carrying 16 passengers and a Dutch tour guide negotiated the busy roundabout.
As the bus accelerated towards the highway heading south, Mills overtook it, slowed down and flashed his brake lights on and off until both vehicles came to a halt in the centre of the lane.
The police said both vehicles blocked the left-hand lane of the dual carriageway.
Mills got out of his vehicle and approached the bus alleging the driver had hit his vehicle earlier.
When the driver refused to open the vehicle’s door Mills began filming the bus, as one of the passengers began filming him.
Mills got back in his ute and then followed the bus along the highway until it exited an off-ramp. The driver then drove in “loops” in an attempt to shake him off.
Mills initially followed but “gave up and went home” when he realised the bus was not going to stop.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Daryl Fenemor said the people on board were left “quite traumatised”.
Defence lawyer, Tagan Lyall, said Mills had moved in with his ailing grandmother to care for her, was stressed because of matters around that, and claimed his vehicle parked outside the house had been damaged by the bus going past.
“He was trying to get it to pull over,” Lyall said.
Judge Rielly said it was an “unusual incident” and that she had heard Mills’ rationale for acting the way he did, but it was reckless and “extremely dangerous”, had placed others at risk and it was also unclear if his vehicle had in fact been struck by the bus.
Judge Rielly said Mills’ actions had also frightened people on the bus.
She said it was difficult to accept Mills’ claim that the stress caused by his living circumstances was behind his actions, but a letter from his doctor meant the court had to accept it was linked.
Judge Rielly also noted Mills’ “concerning list” of previous convictions and fines for driving offences, and that his guilty pleas on the day that a trial was to proceed was not ideal, but he was given a small credit for this plus his personal circumstances.
Mills was sentenced to 120 hours of community work, and disqualified from driving for six months.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
