CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO OUR AUDIO NEWSLETTER – DadCast
Sleeping toddler locked in van for 3 hours – Daycare driver wasn’t aware boy was in the vehicle
Raina Delisle, The Province
Published: Wednesday, May 17, 2006
A Prince George single dad is looking for a new daycare after his toddler was lost for more than three hours, sound asleep and locked in a van. “What happened is unacceptable,” Alvin Iverson told The Province last night. “Something’s got to be done. “It’s very serious. The daycare really screwed up.”
Three-year-old Travis Pelland fell asleep in the daycare van on his way home on Monday, missed his stop and wasn’t noticed by the driver. Travis has been attending South Fort George Daycare for three weeks and usually gets home at 4:45 p.m.
When he was late, his father made a number of calls to find him, but couldn’t reach anyone at the daycare. After calling the hospital to see if there had been an accident, Iverson called the police. This set off a frenzied search at about 6:15 p.m.
“We flooded the area with as many men as possible,” Prince George RCMP Const. Gary Godwin said. “In a situation like this, we prepare for the worst-case scenario.”
Iverson and the police called the driver of the 16-passenger van, but she insisted Travis didn’t get on. At 7:45 p.m., moments after police contacted Provincial Emergency Preparedness in the Lower Mainland to co-ordinate a ground search, Travis was found in the van.
With mounting pressure from searchers, the driver returned to check the van, which was parked in a garage near the daycare.
When she unlocked the door it made a click and woke up Travis. “He sat up in the middle seat of the van looking very sleepy,” Godwin said. Meanwhile, Iverson got through to the daycare worker who had put Travis on the van. Just as Iverson was about to go to the garage, the van pulled up in his driveway, its horn honking.
“I was just elated that nothing happened to my son,” Iverson said.
“It’s amazing what goes through your head in a few hours.” Travis was tired and dehydrated, but fine otherwise.
Carney Hill Neighbourhood Centre, which operates the van, and the daycare centre, say they will look into a more efficient head-count system and have a chaperone on the van.
All daycare worker Adelle Krajci would say was: “Travis is back in our care and he’s as happy as can be.”
But Iverson is not happy. He reported the incident to the Ministry of Family Services and is looking for a new daycare for Travis.