Trenton family wants answers after disabled woman is stranded on bus

Senior Care facility on Parkside Avenue.jpgSenior Care of Trenton facility on Parkside Avenue in Ewing, N.J.

EWING — A township man is looking for answers after his developmentally disabled sister was left unattended for two hours on a Senior Care of Trenton bus on Saturday night.

Henrietta Streater, who lives with her parents on McKinley Avenue in Trenton, was due to be dropped off Saturday evening by a bus driver after spending the day at the Senior Care facility on Parkside Avenue in the township.

But the bus never came.

“Sometimes the van runs a little late, which is expected,” said Stanley Patterson, Streater’s brother. “A half hour went by, then an hour goes by, and my mom is concerned. After two hours went by, she was hysterical.”

Her family called police just before 5 p.m. to report her missing. Police began by calling local hospitals and checking on any medical calls they had been sent on during the day, Sgt. Dave LaBaw said.

None of those matched Streater’s description, so dispatchers called Senior Care, he said. Officers then searched the Senior Care buses, making their way through each one parked on the Parkside Avenue property.

“The officer opened the door, called for her and she answered and stood up,” LaBaw said. “She said she was okay.”

"She apparently sat there, we're estimating, about two hours. She's sitting there in the cold and the dark," Patterson said. "The driver forgot that she was on the vehicle."
Patterson said Streater attends day programs at the facility six days a week and is provided transportation. While the same driver takes her back and forth Monday through Friday, a different driver picks up duties on Saturday, he said.

Linda Kelly, administrator of the Senior Care center in Ewing, said she was not authorized to discuss the incident and referred questions to chief operating officer Craig Mehnert, who works at the company’s Trevose, Pa., headquarters. Mehnert did not return a message seeking comment.

Detective Pat Holt planned to interview Kelley and the bus driver, LaBaw said.

Patterson said that Streater suffers from frequent seizures but that she was in good health when police found her. She was taken to Capital Health Medical Center in Hopewell for evaluation.

“She was okay,” Patteron said. “Today she’s been home and she’s okay, but the rest of the family is disturbed by it.”

The family has since removed Streater from her program at Senior Care of Trenton. But Patterson said he still wants to know how the company will ensure such incidents do not occur again.

“What procedures are in place when a person drops off a vehicle?” he asked. “If a person leaves the vehicles, are they supposed to check if the windows are closed, if there’s any property left behind, if the emergency doors were secure?”

He received a phone call from Mehnert on Sunday but is not satisfied with the company’s explanation, he said.

“He said a human being made a human error. I said ‘Okay, we make human errors, but we’re not talking about UPS leaving a package on the truck, we’re talking about a human being left on a bus,’” Patterson said. “I don’t want to see anybody lose their job, but somebody needs to answer some questions.”

The case remained under investigation yesterday and no charges had been filed.

Contact Matt Fair at mfair@njtimes.com or at (609) 989-5717. Additional reporting by staff writer Alex Zdan.

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