Here’s how RFTA bus driver saved injured mother of alleged kidnapping victim

An Aspen bus driver’s quick thinking and calm cool may have saved a badly injured woman’s life and helped law enforcement rescue her 5-year-old son who she said was kidnapped.

Last Thursday at about 11:30 p.m., RFTA bus driver Lamar Hawkins had just dropped a passenger off at the Harmony Road stop in Burlingame. Jamie Tatsuno, Roaring Fork Transportation Authority communications director, told The Aspen Times that Hawkins was waiting for his departure time at the stop “when a young lady started banging on the door of the bus. He noticed immediately that she needed assistance.”

“Hawkins immediately helped her onto the bus and radioed RFTA dispatch immediately to call 911,” Tatsuno explained. “He called the RFTA road supervisor on duty and 911 himself as he tried to calm the woman down. She was panicking and stating her child was in a silver SUV.”

Hawkins was on Highway 82 heading toward Buttermilk when he was told to pull over at the Truscott bus stop. Aspen Police and the RFTA road supervisor met his bus and the young mother there.

Tatsuno said that as soon as law enforcement got the vehicle description, they drove off in pursuit. Medics took the injured woman to the hospital.

“RFTA IT’s team was contacted immediately to pull the video footage from the bus” to examine it for leads or clues, Tatsuno said.

The man accused of kidnapping the child, Dagoberto Romero-Moreno, was arrested near the small town of Aztec, New Mexico, early the next morning. Aspen Communications Director William Porter said that law enforcement was able to track his vehicle using a sophisticated license plate recognition system, a network of computer-controlled cameras along highways that can read and capture a plate’s numbers and letters, plus an image of the vehicle in 20 milliseconds, a mere fraction of a second.

“We are grateful for Lamar’s quick thinking and not panicking in this difficult situation that helped this woman,” Tatsuno said. “His actions were on point, and we are proud to have him on our team. We are also thankful for the RFTA IT team’s quick response in capturing the footage quickly.”