Driver charged after senior left in bus for more than 7 hours

The daughter of an 81-year-old man who was left alone inside a public transit vehicle for about 7½ hours says she has many questions about what led to the incident.

Kristen Giles says her father, Donald McKeen, visited her at her home in Oakfield, N.S., on June 11.

He was brought there, as he is every Wednesday, by the East Hants Community Rider, a transit service operated by the non-profit East Hants Community Learning Association.

After their visit, the driver came to pick up McKeen just before 3 p.m. to take him back to his residence at the Magnolia Continuing Care Community, a long-term care home in Enfield, about eight kilometres away.

But he never made it there. Giles got a phone call from the Magnolia staff at 10:30 p.m.

"Don's not here," Giles said the staff member told her. "He was to have gone with a family member for a visit. Do you know when he's coming back?"

She told them he had visited her but had boarded the transit vehicle hours earlier.

Giles waited a few minutes, then hopped in the car with her husband to look for McKeen. On the way, she said her husband asked, "'Could he still be in the van?' I said, 'No, there's no way.'"

They decided to stop at the Community Rider parking lot just to make sure.

When they got there, her husband shone his phone light through the window of the vehicle and saw McKeen's empty wheelchair. 

Using a rock, they smashed the window open and found McKeen lying on the floor between the seats. He does not have the use of his legs and has limited strength in his arms, said Giles.

She said her father had been able to undo his seatbelt but had fallen to the ground and was unable to open the door or extricate himself.

"He was pinned. There was no possible way that he could get out. None.… It was 26 degrees that day and he was locked in that van for 7½ hours," Giles said.

"When I got him, I said, 'Dad, you're safe. You're safe. We're here.' And he says, 'He left me here. He just left me.' And Dad says he seen him walk away."