School Bus Driver Fired After Child Found Alone On Bus
CHESWICK (KDKA) -- A bus driver has been fired after a mother says her 5-year-old son was left alone on a parked school bus for nearly an hour earlier this week.
The bus company says it was more like twenty minutes; regardless, they also say it was a very unfortunate incident.
It happened on Monday and the boy's mom says it wasn't until someone heard her son screaming that he was found.
Kaesyn Filous normally gets home from the summer program he's attending in Cheswick around noon, but his mom got worried when the bus showed up an hour late.
"When I get on this bus to get him off, no one said anything at first, she just asked, 'Are you mom?' I said yes, and he blurted out I got left on the bus," said Emilee Filous, Kaesyn's mom.
Emilee says Kaesyn apparently fell asleep and woke up to find himself strapped in a harness on an empty parked bus.
"His shirt was drenched, his face was beet red, he still has a raspy voice. He was screaming," said Emilee.
John Risch, spokesperson for the W.L. Roenigk Bus Company in Sarver, says they train all their drivers to check every seat before leaving the bus and says this driver was a three-year veteran.
"It is a very unfortunate incident. Our company has a zero tolerance policy for this and we immediately released that employee from employment," said Risch.
He also says a supervisor found Kaesyn on the parked bus.
"We realized it relatively quickly. We immediately got the child out of the bus and returned home. The bus was not sitting outside. It was in a covered garage. So it wasn't in the sun," said Risch.
Emilee is thankful Kaesyn is okay, but says the incident has really scared her.
"Something serious could have happened," she says.
The bus company says they will strive to keep this from ever happening again.
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