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AIBU?

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Original poster

4 year old left on the bus

443 replies

Huskylover1 · 15/12/2017 20:22

Just heard about this on the news.

A 4 year old boy, gets the bus home from school. He misses his stop. Doesn't alert the driver. Driver gets back to the depot and parks up the bus and leaves. Bus driver has now been sacked for this.

In my book, a 4 year old, is way too young to get the bus home. Especially as there was no parent waiting at the bus stop even! Had there been, the parent would have alerted the bus driver that their son was on board, and needed to get off. Usually, this boy makes his own way home from the bus stop, lets himself in, and his parents arrive home from work, shortly thereafter.

Cue lots of moaning by the parents, that they've been let down. No mention from anyone, that perhaps this little boy shouldn't be making this journey alone.

I just can't fathom, how any parent can thinks it's good judgement to let a 4 year old:

  • identify the right school bus to get on
  • realise when he needs to get off
  • walk from the bus stop to home, and let himself in

Bonkers!

OP posts:
haggisaggis · 15/12/2017 20:44

I have to say I would have expected a parent to be waiting to meet the bus - so would notice as it drove passed the stop. Our council states it is the parents’ responsibility to supervise to / from collection point. Certainly when mine were in early to middle primary parents would be waiting at the stop for the kids coming off the bus so would have noticed if it didn’t stop.

LipstickHandbagCoffee · 15/12/2017 20:45

Right op before you fire off any more indignant posts,it was a designated school bus.not a regular service bus
Local authorities book buses for schools drop off in rural Scotland
Kid missed stop,parents were waiting for the boy.they weren’t absent or neglectful. Parents alerted police and depot
Driver apparently didn’t do passenger check at end of journey,and failed to see boy as result

becotide · 15/12/2017 20:45

THE CHILD'S FATHER WAS AT HOME, HAVING BEEN INFORMED THAT HE DIDN'T GET ON THE SCHOOL BUS AFTER PHONING ROUND TO TRY TO FIND OUT WHY HE WAS LATE, AND HE WAS ON THE PHONE TO THE POLICE.

Seriously, some of the people on thIS website seem to be borderLine fucking illiterate.

Read. The. Fucking. Article.

ElephantsandTigers · 15/12/2017 20:47

I've just seen an article where police are looking for the parents of the toddler they've found. I'm wondering why the parents aren't looking for their child.

LipstickHandbagCoffee · 15/12/2017 20:48

Op are you coming back to concede you’ve got this wildly wrong

Original poster
Huskylover1 · 15/12/2017 20:48

Can I just say, that people saying the Highlands are getting the wrong picture. This was in Inverness, which is classed as a City. It's not akin to a scene from Braveheart.

The father was on Radio 5 live today, and said himself that they were due to arrive home, 10 minutes after the boy was due home.

Had a parent been at the bus stop, this wouldn't have happened. That's another confirmation, that there was NO parent at the bus stop

OP posts:
CantSleepClownsWillEatMe · 15/12/2017 20:49

Oh come on Hmm. The actual story is very different from your fairly sensational op. This is a coach service providing what sounds like a door to door service for a small number of children, necessarily because of location. The parents have done nothing wrong here at all.

I do feel a bit sorry for the driver but we're talking about responsibility for young children here. To not notice one of them is still in your vehicle is really bad, it's in a different league to overlooking some drunk slumped down the back seat on the top deck!

LipstickHandbagCoffee · 15/12/2017 20:49

Elephants that’s utter rot,the parents alerted the police to the incident
They’ll be with officers dealing with the case

Original poster
Huskylover1 · 15/12/2017 20:49

Local authorities book buses for schools drop off in rural Scotland

Inverness is a CITY. It is not rural.

OP posts:
GetYourRocksOff · 15/12/2017 20:50

You lot are a weird mix of judgey and dim.

PricklyBall · 15/12/2017 20:51

It's a school bus that (in normal circumstances) drops each child by its front gate (not unusual in rural areas in Scotland - I have a relative who's a primary school teacher on one of the islands). It's not a regular scheduled bus service shared with adult members of the public, where the child was expected to walk from the nearest bus stop to his house.

Summerisdone · 15/12/2017 20:51

This thread is really quite fascinating; the amount of misinformation being spouted and how many people’s opinions on the wrong info is then being relayed as facts, just shows how easily and quickly a true story can be turned into fake news.

Some people have relayed the facts and others have even posted actual links to the true story, but for anyone who is still skimming past these replies, just to sum up in a nutshell:

A 4 yr old boy had gotten on the School designated mini bus, this should have then gone down his street and stopped by his house where his dad was waiting. When the bus didn’t show the dad first thought it was delayed due to snow, then after a bit longer he rang the bus company who said child had been dropped off, then they changed their story to child hadn’t even gotten on the bus so dad rang School had confirmed child had indeed been seen onto the bus, so police were alerted along with family and friends in the hope someone would have seen child.
All the while the driver had now finished his route, not double checked the bus and just left, leaving child on the bus, in the depot by himself. After a while when the child realised nobody was coming back, he got off and attempted to walk the journey home alone, where he was eventually spotted by people who had since been alerted of his missing by the very worried parents. From here it was made sure that he got home safely.

So IMO the driver made a completely innocent mistake, it was after all only the 4th day this child had gotten the bus, but still it was a mistake that could have had much worse consequences and therefore his sacking was definitely justified.

pisacake · 15/12/2017 20:51

It looks like this is a public bus, but run for schools IYSWIM.

Original poster
Huskylover1 · 15/12/2017 20:51

*Seriously, some of the people on thIS website seem to be borderLine fucking illiterate.

Read. The. Fucking. Article*

I'd trust the words that actually came out of the Dad's mouth, over an article written by a journalist.

The dad actually said on air, that they arrive home 10 minutes after the boy.

OP posts:
pisacake · 15/12/2017 20:52

school special.

DontDrinkDontSmoke · 15/12/2017 20:52

It’s a school bus that is supposed to drop him at home. Parents waiting for him.

Mossend · 15/12/2017 20:52

Inverness is a city but the boy stayed in the Black Isle, def not a city.
It is very common for children from p1 to get the school bus to and from school here.

frieda909 · 15/12/2017 20:52

Which explains why no parent was waiting at the bus stop for him. Had a parent been at the bus stop, this never would have happened, as they would have alerted the driver.

There was no bus stop. The bus was due to drop him outside his house, but it did not go down that street. So parents would not have seen the bus going past even if they’d been waiting on the doorstep.

Gwenhwyfar · 15/12/2017 20:52

"Very common in scottish highlands for young children to go on the bus."

It is in all sorts of places where the school bus is free because the distance is over the minimum (usually about 2 or 3 miles). I'm presuming this is a dedicated school bus and not a public transport bus. School staff would have put him on the bus.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 15/12/2017 20:53

The driver is at fault.

He should have checked - it's part of his job.

As PP said - someone could be asleep/unconscious, and as these are children he is transporting, someone could be hiding as a joke.

His parents must have been frantic - and he may have been very upset left alone in a bus on a garage.

I'm sorry the driver lost his job - but this could have ended in tragedy.

PricklyBall · 15/12/2017 20:53

Husky - read the article - the child lives on the Black Isle (outside Inverness, which in any case is a very small city, population less than 50,000, and you don't have to go very far outside the city limits to be in the countryside. I have relatives up in the Highlands, I think most English people have no idea how low the population density is up there).

Grimbles · 15/12/2017 20:53

It wasn't in the city of Inverness for fucks sake.

The depot is in Inverness, the boy and his school are not!

LipstickHandbagCoffee · 15/12/2017 20:53

It’s a school bus booked by local authority covering a designated route
Inverness sure isn’t big,the route will likely be urban and rural

Original poster
Huskylover1 · 15/12/2017 20:53

It's a school bus that (in normal circumstances) drops each child by its front gate (not unusual in rural areas in Scotland - I have a relative who's a primary school teacher on one of the islands)

This isn't a rural Scottish isle.

Inverness is a City. It's not a small town. It's not rural. It's the Capital of the Highlands and ranks as a CITY.

OP posts:
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