A Queensland bus driver has been sacked after inadvertently leaving a five-year-old girl on a bus where she was stuck for four hours on her first day back at school.
But the veteran driver Ross Belsham has hit out at Logan Coaches for terminating his employment and Jimboomba State School for not having staff present when he began his pick-up run last Monday afternoon.
Mr Belsham told the Nine Network that he got off the bus because no duty teacher was at the pick-up zone, and that was when Year 1 student Alyssa New snuck on.
Police said Alyssa fell asleep at the back of the bus and went unnoticed by the driver until she was located by depot staff about 7:30pm.
A sweep of the bus was not conducted at the end of Mr Belsham's shift.
"I've lost my job so I don't think I've had a fair run," Mr Belsham said.
"To my knowledge she was not on the bus."
When the alarm was raised that the girl was missing, Mr Belsham said depot staff were "50 metres away and didn't check the bus".
In his termination letter, Logan Coaches general manager Peter Bowerman told Mr Belsham the incident caused an "imminent risk" to the girl's safety.
"Had you followed company policy and procedure at the end of your shift, the trauma and stress suffered by Alyssa New would have been avoided," the letter said.
Alyssa's disappearance sparked a huge search of the Jimboomba area, with police initially fearing she had been abducted.
"Alyssa was located petrified and crying banging on the school bus doors to get out," she wrote on Facebook after the incident.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk described the incident as a "wake-up call", and ordered the Department of Transport to remind all bus companies of their obligations to check for children.
The girl's mother Bobbie Langdon claimed she was there to pick up her daughter up at her regular bus stop in Yarrabilba on the afternoon Alyssa went missing. But Mr Belsham said that was not true.
Ms Langdon was contacted for comment.
Queensland Police have confirmed no charges would be laid over the incident and said their investigation into the matter had concluded.
