A Charlotte Area Transit System bus driver for people with disabilities locked a passenger on her bus for roughly 90 minutes earlier this month, according to a transit system investigation obtained by WFAE.
CATS said this week that the driver, Kimberlee Burch-Brown, is no longer with the transit system.
Burch-Brown worked for CATS Special Transportation Services, which is for people with disabilities who can’t ride a regular bus.
An internal CATS investigation found that on Oct. 3, Burch-Brown went to a funeral on Beatties Ford Road during her lunch break and mistakenly left the passenger on the bus for about 90 minutes. She had locked the bus.
Security camera footage shows the passenger was sitting upright, visible to the driver before Burch-Brown left the bus.
In its report, CATS said the driver “did not listen to the other passengers on the bus when they told her there was another passenger that needed to be dropped off.” The report also said that she “did not secure her bus by ensuring that all the passengers were off the bus.”
After the man’s family called CATS to ask where he was, the transit system found him inside the bus.
The city did not respond to WFAE as to why CATS no longer employs the driver.
