Police charged a 53-year-old school bus driver with risk of injury to a minor after discovering two special-needs children abandoned inside a sweltering, closed bus.
Police spokesman Officer David Hartman wrote the following release about the arrest:
A First Student Bus Driver has been charged with two counts of risk of injury to children. Officers were summoned to 674 Woodward Avenue to check on the welfare of two children, left unattended in a school bus. The call was dispatched at 12:15 PM on Thursday. One of the children, a sixteen year old boy, had phoned his mother, telling her he was locked in the school bus after the driver left them there. The child’s mother was able to track her son’s location through his phone. She drove to the Woodward Avenue location, found the bus and phoned police.
Officers Francisco Ortiz and Officer Eric Avilles opened the door and found the children. According to the report, the bus wasn’t running and had tinted windows which were all closed. The only fresh air would have been from a slightly opened driver’s window. According to a weather report, the outside temperature was 90 degrees accompanied by a heat-advisory due to the high humidity. The children were alert and able to walk off the bus. According to the time stamp associated with the bus camera system, the driver parked the bus at 11:44 AM. The students were in the bus, alone for at least a half-hour.
The second student is a seventeen year old girl who is non-verbal. Officer Ortiz located the student pick-up list and through the process of elimination, was able to identify the silent student. Officer Avilles drove to the student’s home, found the girl’s father and brought him back to the bus.
Thought there were no obvious signs of physical illness or injury to either student, EMTs were summoned to check them out. The male student has autism. The female student suffers from multiple health disorders. She was later taken to Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital to be further evaluated. She was released after being checked out.
Officer Ortiz had contacted NHPD School Resource Officers, who informed administrators and counselors. They quickly responded to the scene. Ortiz called the bus company. He’d been unable to locate the driver after banging at the door of the apartment the students indicated she’d gone in. The company phoned the driver, who returned to the bus.
[The driver], of New Haven, told police she was the bus driver. She said she’d been unaware there were children still on the bus. She said she drove home after she thought all the students had been dropped off. She said she was picked up by a relative and left the property. She returned promptly after being called by her employer.
[The driver] was arrested and charged with two counts of risk of injury to children. As is the practice, the State Department of Children and Families was notified and a case opened.
Officials from the New Haven Board of Education have said there were several clear violations of protocol, committed by the driver. First Student Bus Company has been cooperating with the BOE investigation into this matter.
