A Hong Kong bus driver found himself the focus of an unusual degree of attention from the city’s law enforcement and prosecutors after honking his horn three times while navigating past police and protesters on Sept. 6. Those three honks landed him three different charges on three separate days as authorities struggled to decide what exactly he’d done wrong.

The 36-year-old was driving down Nathan Road, the main artery dissecting the commercial and tourism center of the Kowloon Peninsula, when he encountered the protest against the government’s one-year delay in elections that were due to be held that day. With tensions running high, police pounced on the New World First Bus driver after he sounded a warning three times — the last honk aimed at the officers themselves.

He was charged with fast and dangerous driving. Only the black box in the bus — which tracks the vehicle’s speed and other key data — showed it was moving at between 10 and 35 kilometers per hour (16-22 miles per hour), Lam Kam-piu, chairman of the bus company’s staff union, said in an interview with local broadcaster Commercial Radio on Wednesday. The speed limit for buses is 50km/h in Hong Kong.

Police then changed tack to focus on a spanner they had found in the driver’s possession, and which they said was an offensive weapon. The tool, it turned out, was needed to adjust the rear-view mirror of the bus.

Finally, police on Thursday quietly shelved the offensive-weapons accusation and settled on a charge of driving carelessly without due care and attention.

It would be inappropriate for New World First Bus to comment on the issue as it was before the courts, the company said in a statement, adding that it would provide appropriate assistance to the driver. The driver is currently on a two-week leave of absence, it said.

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