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LEHI — A van driver for Wasatch Transportation is facing a criminal charge after police say she was supposed to drop off a 4-year-old student from the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind at home, but instead the child was found still inside the van parked at the driver's home.
Patricia Lea Kitchen, 70, of Lehi, was charged Tuesday in 4th District Court with neglect of a child with a disability, a third-degree felony.
A "4-year-old disabled child" from the school's Springville campus, the Elizabeth DeLong School, was supposed to be dropped off at the child's home in Eagle Mountain on May 2, according to charging documents. Kitchen was the driver of the transportation van that day.
"The van left the school at about 1:30 p.m. The other children were home by 2:30-2:45 p.m. The van was parked at the defendant's residence at 3:34 p.m. The mother called the van company when her child did not get home about 4 p.m. The company used GPS tracking for the van and found the child seated in the van, still belted in at about 4:15 p.m.," the charges allege.
The Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind does not have its own school buses and contracts with a private company for student transportation.
According to the school, administrators were notified by Wasatch Transportation "that the driver forgot to drop off the student at the home." The transportation company, however, says the child was only left in the van for five minutes before being found, according to a spokeswoman for the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.
"Wasatch Transportation reported they took swift action so this will not happen again," school spokeswoman Susan Thomas said, while adding that the "Elizabeth DeLong School takes student transportation safety very seriously and is grateful the student was quickly found and reunited with parents."
Wasatch Transportation did not immediately respond to KSL.com's request for comment.
