http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/91561/special-needs-student-left-on-bus-overnight--family-wants-answers/Default.aspx

Bus Matron Said To Have Left Special Needs Student On Bus
By: NY1 News

Police have arrested a bus matron after a special needs student was left overnight on a Brooklyn bus in sub-freezing temperatures Wednesday.

Linda Hockaday, 51, was arrested Thursday night and now faces charges of reckless endangerment.

Investigators found Edwin Rivera cold and shivering at a Brooklyn bus yard Thursday morning, nearly 24 hours after he left home.


The 22-year-old, who has cerebral palsy, is being treated for hypothermia at Brookdale University Medical Center.

Rivera's family reported him missing around 9:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve when he didn't return to his East Harlem home after taking part in a special needs program.

They are still trying to figure out how this could have happened.

"How could they do that, how could they lose a person?" said Khristine Rivera, the student's brother. "He's like 6'2 and hunches over, the seats are not even high."

"I hope something, something's got to happen," she continued. "Because that's just pure negligence and stupidity and just because he is the way he is doesn't mean he's less of a person, he just needs extra help."

Edwin Rivera is said to be in stable condition.

NY1 has reached out to Outstanding Transport, which owns the the bus, but has not received a response.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01042009/news/regionalnews/palsy_driver_shock_147130.htm
'PALSY' DRIVER SHOCK
HAS LONG RAP SHEET
Last updated: 1:56 am
January 4, 2009
Posted: 1:53 am
January 4, 2009

The bus driver grilled by police for leaving severely disabled Ed Wynn Rivera trapped in his seat overnight has a shocking rap sheet of 28 arrests, including an assault on a Bronx cop, according to NYPD sources.

Walter Gibbs, 41, of Manhattan, a new employee of Brooklyn-based Outstanding Transport bus company, also has counts of forgery, grand larceny, theft of service and drug crimes on his record.

In his latest legal scuffle, Gibbs was busted on Aug. 5 for grand larceny and harassment stemming from a July 21 incident in Harlem.

His biggest trouble with the law occurred in 2007, after he allegedly assaulted a cop. Details of that case were unavailable.

But in the Rivera case, Gibbs will likely face no charges, police sources said.

The victim's sister, Leslie Rivera, was outraged after learning of the driver's alleged brushes with the law.

"If it's true, then this man had no business being behind the wheel or working with this population," she said.

"You would think if he was arrested 28 times, they'd see that on a background check."

The state agency that clears drivers to work with special-needs children, the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, said that it never received Gibbs' fingerprints or background check from the company, according to spokeswoman Nicole Weinstein.

The information, which the bus company must provide, has to be cleared by the agency before a driver can begin work, Weinstein said.

The bus-company owner, Charles Curcio, slammed the door when a Post reporter asked if he knew Gibbs, who is licensed to drive a school bus, had been arrested 28 times.

Gibbs, on the job only two days, told cops he was unaware Rivera was still on the bus and that it was not his duty to double-check that the vehicle was empty, sources said.

Rivera, 22, who has cerebral palsy and the mind of a child, was supposed to be dropped off at his family's East Harlem apartment after attending a special-needs class in TriBeCa on New Year's Eve.

Instead, he was left alone in the bus company's yard for 17 frigid hours after Gibbs and the bus matron, Linda Hockaday, left.

Rivera is being treated for hypothermia at Brookdale Hospital.

Police busted Hockaday, 51, of Brooklyn, who allegedly gave the all-clear to Gibbs although she knew Rivera, who can't talk, was still on board.

She allegedly told police she was in a rush to attend a music event at a church, and assumed Gibbs would drive Rivera home.

Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli

from WCBS News:
http://wcbstv.com/seenat11/missing.disabled.man.2.900809.html
Jan 6, 2009 6:17 am US/Eastern
Disabled Man On Bus May Have Eaten Seat Foam
Ed Wynn Rivera's Father Tells CBS 2 HD Exclusively How He Finally Found His Shivering Son In Brooklyn Reporting
Mary Calvi NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Click to enlarge
Edwin Rivera, a mentally disabled 22-year-old, spent 17 hours on a bus like this over the New Year's Eve holiday after his bus matron allegedly left him because she didn't want to be late for church.

On Monday night his father spoke out to CBS 2 HD exclusively about what it was like to find his son.

Make no mistake: a father's love helped discover his son in the freezing cold.

Ed Wynn Rivera is finally home. His father, Elmer, found his 22-year-old son in a Brooklyn bus parking lot on New Year's Day. A bus matron has since been charged, after abandoning him there.

For 17 hours he remained, seat-belted in his seat with temperatures dropping to 15 degrees.

It was Elmer who had the forethought to go to the bus parking lot, after an all-night search of his school and Harlem neighborhood turned up nothing. He found two workers at the bus company who checked the bus for him.

"She comes back with tears in her eyes," Elmer said.

She had found Ed.

"He seems scared," Elmer said.

And he was hungry his family says. At the hospital, a CAT scan revealed Ed had foam in his system.

"They were concerned because he was inflamed," sister Leslie Rivera said.

The foam in his system and hypothermia kept him in the hospital until Monday.

Love from his family, who adopted him at age five, is helping Ed through. His mother and sister have been holding onto to him since the ordeal.

"He is holding her hand like don't let me go," Leslie said. "It's nice to have him home."

Investigators are now looking into the criminal record of the bus driver who also had his license suspended 12 times.