A day after CTV News first reported the story of a 9-year-old boy, who was left alone on a school bus in Sturgeon County for several hours earlier this week, the bus driver at the centre of it all has resigned.
On Wednesday, Diane Kimmy told CTV News she was angry after her young son, Colby Fennell, was apparently forgotten on the bus after he fell asleep on his way to school.
He woke up later that morning, on the bus that was parked several kilometres away at the bus driver’s home.
“If I did that, I would be in jail, I think it’s very severe and has to be dealt with in a very serious manner,” Kimmy said.
That day, temperatures reached -8 degrees Celsius, and Colby had to curl up on the seat to keep warm.
The principal of Colby’s school, Namao School, said she had apologized for what happened – apologies echoed by the Superintendent of the Sturgeon County School Division.
“There is no question we are very upset about the entire situation,” Superintendent Michele Dick said.
“We have a number of processes, procedures, policies in place, because student safety is really primary for us – as they are for all school jurisdictions in Alberta, and in this particular situation, some of those failed us.”
Kevin Tomten, the owner of Tomten Bus Services, the company that owns the bus involved, also apologized – and said the company hasn’t had to deal with such an incident in 27 years.
In addition, Tomten said the bus driver had resigned, and that the company would be taking measures to prevent such an incident from happening again – he said he will be installing alarms to ensure drivers do a walk-through before parking.
According to Tomten, drivers will have to walk to the back of their buses, open the back door and close it, before the alarm shuts off.
With files from David Ewasuk
