Richard Arthur Potratz says he’s still not sure why he started mixing hard liquor with a narcotics cocktail of fentanyl and hydromorphone while driving a charter bus carrying 52 Saskatoon grade school students back in March.
The veteran driver, 71, said in Saskatoon provincial court that he’d been battling chronic back pain for two decades and the pills weren’t cutting it anymore. 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 on March 14 with the Grade 6, 7 and 8 students from Holliston Elementary School 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 getting a report of an impaired driver operating a chartered bus,” a police news release said.
They arrived to find the bus on the side of the highway and Potratz passed out on the back seat of a car driven by a parent who was following.
“I’ve come to the full realization of how much fear I caused,” Potratz said Thursday in a letter read in Saskatoon provincial court.
“I take full responsibility for what happened that day.”
He pleaded guilty to driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit.
Crown prosecutor Janyne Laing presented a pre-sentence report that detailed Potratz’s various medical maladies, and a victim impact statement from a teacher on the bus who asked to remain anonymous.
Potratz represented himself.
“It was the scariest incident ever as a teacher. Is this really happening? What if we die,” the teacher wrote.
The teacher said they thought of the Humboldt Broncos fatal crash as they frantically buckled students into their seats while the bus wove across lanes and onto the shoulder of the busy highway.
“The hardest thing was asking an adult to pull over 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 and everyone on the highway that day.
Potratz appeared Thursday without a lawyer. He presented Judge Brad Mitchell with an apology letter he wrote to staff and students at Holliston school.
“I put fear in your hearts,” he said through tears.
“I regretted it then, I regret it today and I will regret it for eternity.”
Potratz said he’d suffered from chronic back pain for 25 years and had been relying on escalating 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 alcohol under control, but it got control of me. I thank God those people intervened and got me off the road.”
Laing proposed a conditional sentence of two years less a day to be served in the community, followed by a two-year driving prohibition. The sentence would also include a curfew, addictions and personal counselling, an abstention clause and community service.
Potratz did not contest the proposal.
Mitchell reserved his decision to an unspecified later date.
“I need to think about this long and hard,” he said.
“The facts are extremely concerning.”
