And We Thought the CTA was Bad

By Alicia Dorr in News on Mar 27, 2007 6:45PM

Suburban Beckham Transit in Harvey didn't look too great when a 4-year-old fell asleep on the bus and was locked inside the company's bus yard, but it now it seems there's a negligence epidemic. The most recent incident involves the company, another 4-year-old and a driver who thought it would be fine to leave the kid locked out of his house on a stoop in the rain.

Monitors, who were on the bus in both cases, are supposed to walk children to the door. Clearly, in both cases, they didn't, and parents are starting to wonder if the bus company will get its shit together. The mother in the most recent case charged that the company hasn't even contacted her, saying, "They're acting like it's no big deal to leave a 4-year-old out in the rain."

While this isn't as great of a quote as the time we heard a guy lamenting the loss of compassionate CTA bus drivers ("Ya'll'd see grandma out in the rain and just drive on by"), we still think she's got a point. If the bus company employs monitors so they can make sure children, especially ones as young as these, are safe and get to their destinations, then we think the least they could do in this case is apologize or make some move to rectify the problem.

In some cases like these, police have even charged drivers with abandonment. To some that may seem a bit much, but — and not to sound hokey — thank any gods you want that these kids are okay.

Image via the George Eastman House website.