Family outraged after nonverbal toddler left alone for hours on hot school bus in East New York

"I'm always hands on with Macqurie. I always want the best for him," said Moesha Samuel.

Samuel thought when she handed her 3-year-old son Macqurie off to the school bus driver he was in good hands.

"Your child is supposed to get to school and get home safely," she told Eyewitness News. "And sorry, my child didn't do that. My child was left alone, unattended, by himself."

Left alone in an East New York bus depot under the baking sun.

On Tuesday, just like every day, Macqurie was picked up by the school bus at home at around 1:00 in the afternoon, his family says.

He attends a special needs school year round.

After school - at around 4 p.m. - he was dropped at his grandma's house.

"I knew something was wrong. I know my grandchild," said Gwendolyn Simmons.

Simmons says her 3-year-old grandson was dehydrated and sweaty.

That's when the family says they got the call from the bus company saying Macqurie never made it to school.

He had been left on the bus for hours.

"If it was me or anybody else, if we left a child in a car in the summer we would have been in jail," said Simmons.

And maybe the worst part of all is that the toddler has autism and is nonverbal.

Moesha Samuel says the school tried to contact her a short time after Macqurie should have gotten dropped at school.

But she was in a doctor's appointment.

"He can't talk, he can't bang on the window," she said. "He can't do all these things to try to get safety, so how can you all leave a child on the bus?"

The bus company, Total Transportation, sent Eyewitness News the following statement:

"We, too, are upset about what happened, and we apologize to the family. We have multiple layers of safety protections in place that are designed to ensure no child is left unattended on a bus, which include technology and training. What happened was unacceptable."

The bus driver is being terminated. But the family says that is not enough.

"I could have been burying my grandson today," said Simmons.

Total Transportation says the driver has been removed from service while being terminated.

Eyewitness News reached out to the child's school as well.

They did not provide comment, saying they are in contact with the family.

The child's mom says most of the responsibility really falls on bus employees to check the bus.

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