The Bucks County Intermediate Unit is expected to fire the van driver who left a 4-year-old boy with special needs alone in a hot van for close to three hours earlier this week.
The driver has been suspended without pay following the incident that happened Tuesday morning in Bristol Township.
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Lt. Guy Sava said Thursday afternoon that the investigation into the incident has been completed. The investigative file has been forwarded to the district attorney’s office for review. He added there is no timeline for a decision on charges.
The special needs boy from Bensalem was found unattended in the van at the Friendship Circle Early Childhood Center in the 700 block of Emily Avenue in Bristol Township’s Croydon section around noon Tuesday. A nurse working at the center tended to the child until medics arrived and transported the boy to Lower Bucks Hospital.
The boy was the treated for dehydration at the hospital and later returned to the care of his parents.
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“The driver did not follow BCIU protocol and left the child unattended in his car seat,” a Tuesday statement from the IU said.
According to police, the boy was picked up from Bensalem Tuesday morning and loaded into the van along with other kids. The van was unloaded at the center, but the 4-year-old child was not removed from his car seat. The van driver returned to their home in Bensalem and was unaware there was still a child in the vehicle. The child was discovered as the van was re-loaded at the center around noon when the morning session had ended, police said.
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The air temperature in nearby Trenton was registered as 82 degrees around the time the child was found, according to the National Weather Center. It is known that temperatures inside vehicles during warm weather can quickly rise.
Police said the driver was not operating her normal vehicle, but the two vehicles were similar.
The IU said they will continue to train employees and work to make sure an incident like Tuesday’s does not happen again.
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