Suspicious bag of
underwear causes
evacuation of city bus

An unattended backpack -- later found to contain dirty underwear -- prompted the evacuation of a city bus on Pali Highway near Castle Junction yesterday, on the first full day of a heightened alert level for public transportation in Hawaii.

The incident was one of at least two bus evacuations yesterday, both of which were false alarms and involved unattended backpacks, said Roger Morton, senior vice president and director of operations for Oahu Transit Services Inc., which operates TheBus.

The Castle Junction incident happened at about 5:20 p.m. when a bus driver called police about a bag apparently left behind by a passenger.

Bus riders filed out onto the shoulder along the highway's Kailua-bound lanes and were stuck there for about 15 minutes while police determined whether the backpack posed a danger.

"Police did check it out," Morton said. "It turned out to be dirty underwear."

Morton had no details on the second false alarm and could not say if there were others throughout the day.

Thursday, just hours after the deadly bus and subway bombings in London, Gov. Linda Lingle upped Hawaii's terror alert level to "orange" -- or a high risk of a terrorist attack -- for the state's mass transit operators.

Drivers and passengers were encouraged to look out for unattended bags, which are common on city buses.

"Just look at our lost and found," Morton said. "It's not unusual for items to be left on the bus."

Even so -- and despite the false alarms -- Morton said the heightened awareness is not a burden, and he has no plans to tell drivers to think twice before calling police about an unattended bag.

"We'd rather be safe than sorry," he said.