An autistic 3-year-old Bronx boy was left alone on a school bus for more than six hours yesterday, cops said.
José Lopez was left strapped in his car seat outside PS 194 after the driver, Terry Rocker, 25, and bus attendant Charlene Powell, 47, forgot to check the vehicle when they dropped off students shortly after 8 a.m., authorities said.
Both were arrested on charges that included child endangerment.
At 2 p.m., “I went to school to pick him up and a school official told me he was absent for the day,” said José’s mother, Marisol Tirado, 33. “I went into a panic, crying, ‘Where’s my son?’ ”
She said the official checked the bus and exclaimed, “My God! He’s in here!”
“I still don’t know what happened,” Tirado said. “It’s just horrible.” José was taken to Jacobi Hospital as a precaution, but appeared fine. His father, José Sr., said, “Thank God I didn’t see the driver. My reaction would have been bad.”