A terrified 2-year-old Brooklyn boy was abandoned on a parked school bus yesterday by the driver and matron — and spent two hours alone because the workers at his SUNY-run day care never noticed that he hadn’t been dropped off.
Adrien Long was rescued by an alert dog walker who heard the child sobbing and notified a safety agent at a nearby school.
Police were called and driver Roberto Isales and matron Shantel Ruth Thames were both charged with child endangerment.
“I went on the bus and the kid was crying. He wasn’t even strapped down,” said a witness who wouldn’t give his name. “I went over and he hugged my leg.
“He was wearing a blue winter coat, no backpack. His diaper had to be changed.”
The driver and the matron picked up Adrien at his Brooklyn Avenue home at 7:30 a.m. and were supposed to drop him off at SUNY Downstate’s Infant & Child Learning Center in East Flatbush, police sources told The Post.
Instead, sources say, Isales forgot about the toddler, dropped Thames off at her home after the two completed their route, and then parked the bus — which belongs to Smart Pick Inc. of Coney Island — at West 2nd Street and West Brighton Avenue, a block from the driver’s home.
Isales went home to take a nap before afternoon pickups, police said.
Officials at the day-care never realized that little Adrien hadn’t been dropped off at the usual time of 8:30 a.m., sources said.
It wasn’t until 10:30 a.m. that the dog walker heard the youngster.
Cops called Isales, 50, and Thames, 38, of Coney Island, back to the scene, where they were arrested, police said.
Adrien was taken to Coney Island Hospital to be evaluated and then was reunited with his parents, police added.
“I’m happy my boy is home,” said the boy’s father through the intercom at their home.
“They [the driver and matron] are responsible. They’re lucky the cops got to them first.”
Isales apparently tried to put the blame for the mishap on Thames, saying, “It was the matron’s job,” according to the source.
A representative from the bus company declined to comment.
SUNY Downstate spokesman Ron Najman said nothing like that had never happened before in the program’s 23 years.
“Starting [today], if we have a child scheduled and doesn’t appear, we are calling home,” he said.