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

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