A school van driver, accused of leaving the only student he was supposed to take to a Chester County kindergarten in the van for nearly six hours, blamed medications for his mistake.
Iver Rosenlund Jr. told investigators that he picked up the 7-year-old student at her West Grove, Pennsylvania home around 8:10 a.m. March 31 to take her to Mary D. Lang Kindergarten in Kennett Square, according to a police affidavit of probable cause obtained by NBC10 Thursday.
The girl was the only passenger on the Krapf's school van at the time.
She never made it to school that day. Officials told the child's mother more than five hours later that her daughter was absent. "the mother advised school personnel that was impossible since the (girl) left on the school van," said the affidavit.
The school called Rosenlund, who returned to the Krapf bus lot on Walnut Street in Kennett Square where he and another Krapf employee found the girl still strapped into her car seat in the van, said police.
Rosenlund, 66, told investigators he felt drowsy from an over-the-counter cold medication and ADHD medication while taking the girl to school. He said he drove past the school and then backed the van into a spot at the Krapf's lot, said police.
He said he looked over his shoulder but admitted to not following the company policy of checking any school vehicle from front to rear before leaving the vehicle, said police.
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"Leaving a young child unattended in a vehicle is serious and could have had tragic consequences," said Kennett Square Police Department Police Chief Edward Zunnino. "This bus driver’s conduct put this little girl at risk."
On Wednesday, Krapf Bus Co. said the driver was terminated for violating rules regarding him to check the bus for passengers.
Superintendent Barry Tomasetti said in a letter to parents Tuesday that "words cannot express our level of dismay and disgust."
On Thursday, county prosecutors charged Roselund, who hails from Malvern, with child endangerment and reckless endangerment counts.
"This case is a parent’s worst nightmare: you put your child on a school bus and the child seems to disappear," said Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan. "The defendant’s misconduct seriously endangered this little girl. In the weather we had a month ago, she would have frozen to death. A month from now, she could have died from heat stroke. We are all lucky that she was not seriously hurt."
