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Richard Arthur Potratz says he’s still not sure why he started mixing hard liquor with a narcotic cocktail of fentanyl and hydromorphone while driving a charter bus carrying 52 Saskatoon elementary school students in March.
The veteran driver, 71, said in Saskatoon provincial court he had been battling chronic back pain for two decades and the pills were no longer enough. His pain was “12 on a scale of one to 10” that day, he said.
Potratz was behind the wheel of a Prince Albert Northern Bus Lines charter vehicle on March 14 with Holliston Elementary School sixth, seventh and eighth grade students on board. They were returning to Saskatoon from a day trip to Table Mountain, west of the Battlefords.
Saskatoon police responded to calls about an erratic driver.
“Police said they were called to the scene near Highway 16 and 71st Street around 6 p.m. CST on March 14 after receiving a report of an intoxicated driver operating a charter bus,” a police news release said.
They arrived to find the bus on the side of the road and Potratz passed out in the back seat of a car driven by a father who was following them.
“I have come to realize the fear I caused,” Potratz said Thursday in a letter read in Saskatoon provincial court.
“I take full responsibility for what happened that day.”
Pleaded guilty to driving with a blood alcohol level above the legal limit.
Crown prosecutor Janyne Laing presented a pre-sentence report detailing Potratz’s various medical illnesses and a victim impact statement from a teacher on the bus who asked to remain anonymous.
Potratz represented himself.
“It was the most terrifying incident a teacher has ever had. Is this really happening? What if we die?” the teacher wrote.
The teacher said he thought about the fatal Humboldt Broncos crash as they frantically buckled students into their seats as the bus crossed the lanes and reached the shoulder of the busy highway.
“The hardest thing was asking an adult to stop because I don’t feel safe,” the teacher wrote.
Laing said the incident had a “real and profound impact” on the students and teachers on the bus, the people following it and everyone on the road that day.
‘I thought I had my alcohol under control’
Potratz appeared Thursday without a lawyer. He gave Judge Brad Mitchell a letter of apology he wrote to staff and students at the Holliston school.
“I put fear in your hearts,” she said through tears.
“I regretted it then, I regret it today and I will regret it for eternity.”
Potratz said he had suffered from chronic back pain for 25 years and had relied on increasing amounts of painkillers, including fentanyl and hydromorphone.
Adding alcohol to the mix that day “was a stupid decision…there are no excuses,” he said.
“This was a real eye-opener. I thought I had the alcohol under control, but it controlled me. I thank God those people intervened and took me off the road.”
Laing proposed a suspended sentence of two years less per day to be served in the community, followed by a two-year driving ban. The sentence would also include a curfew, addictions and personal counseling, an abstention clause and community service.
Potratz did not question the proposal.
Mitchell reserved his decision for an unspecified later date.
“I need to think about this carefully,” he said.
“The facts are extremely worrying.”
