Calgary Transit bus driver being hailed as a hero after stopping for a woman being chased

Bus driver hailed as hero A Calgary bus driver is being hailed as a hero after stopping to help a woman being chased.

Calgary — Ernie Watts, a 12 year veteran bus driver with Calgary Transit, was driving to Westhills on 26 Avenue S.W. on Wednesday July 29 just before midnight when Meagan Filteau jumped in front of his bus and stopped him.

That's not usually how you catch a bus in Calgary, but Watts didn't mind.

“The girl just flagged me down in the middle of the road.” said Watts. “I stopped and picked her up and calmed her down.”

Filteau was scared because someone was chasing her. So Watts came up with a solution that was a little less Calgary Transit and a little more Uber: he contacted Calgary Transit control and told them “this girl needs some help.” Transit control advised him to circle back a couple of blocks and take her home.

Watts added that this kind of situation has never happened to him and he didn’t hesitate to help, even if it threw off the bus schedule for a few minutes.

“He’s my hero.” said Meagan Filteau, who recently moved nearby, to the Killarney neighbourhood.

Filteau was out for a late night walk because it was nice and cool and she wanted to get familiar with her new neighbourhood. That's when she noticed she was being followed by a car. Then,  the driver pulled over and asked if she wanted some company.

Then he got even creepier.

“He pulled up around me and cornered me with his car," Filteau told CTV News.  “He tried to shake my hand - and in COVID  times, it's so absurd (to do that).”

Filteau was in fight or flight mode when the driver got out of his car and approached her. She was close to home but didn’t want to take the chance of being followed to her house.

Instead, she sought help from someone she'd never seen before.

“I needed to get out of here and ran in the middle of the street and waved down the transit driver," she said.

It turned out to be the best move she could have made.

The Calgary Police Service reminds everybody in Calgary to keep personal safety in mind at all times.

For safety tips you can check out Calgary Police website.

Or the City of Calgary website.