Driver Charged After Autistic Boy Spends Hours Alone On A School Bus

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A young boy with autism was abandoned for four hours on a school bus in New Jersey.

On Friday night, the driver was facing charges.

The 9-year-old boy was okay after his fright, Thursday morning. CBS2's Tony Aiello has been told, when the driver realized what happened, he drove the student directly home to his mom.

Understandably upset she contacted the school and police.

It happened on a small bus that transports a half-dozen children to a school for kids autism.

The boy reportedly fell asleep in the back of the vehicle, and didn't enter the school, without the driver noticing.

Hardy Sannoh, 60, allegedly drove home to take a break, parked near his house, and left the boy alone on the bus for four hours.

"This is a parent's worst nightmare. When you put your child on the bus you want to make sure they're safe until such time as they come home," Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey said.

Sannoh has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

There was no answer at the bus company Accurate Transportation on Friday.

Piscataway parents said the stories about kids left alone on buses are always troubling.

"I don't understand how anybody can be a driver or anything in that profession and not check to make sure the kids are okay," Kirsten Wendland said.

"He should have checked his bus, make sure everything was all clear, and then get off the bus and end his day. Until that inspection is done he shouldn't get off the bus," Mark Jimenez said.