Judge sends Saskatoon bus driver to jail for driving drunk with 52 kids on board

A Saskatoon judge says a bus driver who mixed alcohol and pain killers while driving a charter bus with 52 children aboard posed an "outrageous" risk.

And so Judge Brad Mitchell said he needed to impose a sentence even higher than the community-based sentence the Crown had recommended, and he sent Richard Arthur Potratz to jail.

Potratz learned his sentence on Monday in Saskatoon provincial court, where he was led away in handcuffs.

The 71-year-old was driving a Prince Albert Northern Bus Lines charter on March 14, 2025, with 52 school kids and two teachers on board. They were returning to Saskatoon from a ski trip to Table Mountain, west of the Battlefords.

Potratz was drifting in and out of his lane, driving on the shoulder at times, and terrifying the passengers, before one of the two teachers on board managed to convince him to pull over.

By the time the police arrived, a replacement driver had already taken the bus and passengers away, and Potratz was passed out in the back seat of a separate vehicle that a chaperone had been driving.

His blood-alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit. He also was taking prescribed fentanyl and hydromorphone for his chronic back pain, which he classified as a "12 out of 10" on that day.

Potratz's choice to drink and drive in the circumstances was "breathtaking in its recklessness," Mitchell said.

"This was essentially drinking in order to drive."

Potratz was fired from the bus company after the incident.

At his sentencing hearing in November, he read aloud a letter he wrote to the principal of Holliston Elementary School apologizing for his actions. He said he would regret his actions that day "for eternity."

At that hearing, Crown prosecutor Janyne Laing submitted two cases from other provinces with similar circumstances where the offenders received six-month jail sentences. But she said that given Potratz's age and his medical issues, a community sentence order of two years less a day would be appropriate. (Community sentence orders are jail sentences that are served in the community.)

Potratz, who didn't have a lawyer and represented himself in court, didn't take issue with the Crown's position, but Mitchell said at the time that he needed to take time to consider it.

On Monday, Mitchell said he decided a community sentence order did not send a strong enough message to the public in this case.

One of the aggravating factors for drunk driving listed in the Criminal Code is the presence of a passenger in the vehicle who's younger than 16. In this case, there were 52 young passengers, Mitchell noted, referencing the fear that any parent of school-aged children would feel when hearing about this case.

He sentenced Potratz to six months in jail, followed by one year of probation with terms that include 50 hours of community service. Potratz is also prohibited from driving for two years.