The bus driver who mistakenly left a 3-year-old boy on a parked bus for 2 ½ hours Thursday was fired by Shriver Bus Company.

The boy was on the bus bound for Head Start, a preschool in Butler which he attends. The school bus dropped off children at Head Start around 9:25 a.m. and the bus driver drove the bus to his home in Butler and parked it in his driveway.

“He did check the bus but he did not check it thoroughly,” said Shriver Bus Company supervisor Katherine Miller. “He just didn't do a good job of checking it. He went through the motions but he did not see the child, and why he didn't see the child, I don't know.”

Miller said that after each run, a system must be turned off at the back of the bus or its horn will go off and lights will flash when the door is opened. She said the bus driver turned off the system and also hung up a sign at the back of the bus that stated he checked the bus for children.

Miller said the company has a zero-tolerance policy for failing to get children safely on and off the bus.

“It was his own human error and neglect and that's why he had to be dismissed,” Miller said.

The boy was found around noon after Butler County Children's Center, which is in charge of Head Start, called Shriver Bus Company to alert them that the child was missing.

The bus driver was immediately relieved of his duties at the scene, at which he apologized to the boy's parents for leaving him on the bus.

The company would not release the name or address of the driver.