A Toledo Area Regional Paratransit Service driver was fired days after parking a TARPS bus inside the agency’s maintenance garage with a passenger still on board.

Laura Koprowski, the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority’s spokesman, said Wednesday the Aug. 13 incident involving Steve Chirgott violated the transit authority’s policy requiring drivers to fully inspect vehicles at the beginning and ends of their runs.

Mr. Chirgott, 24, of Sylvania was among several passengers aboard a TARPS bus that took them to Lott Industries on Hill Avenue but, for reason unknown, he did not get off the bus there, Ms. Koprowski said. He telephoned his mother several hours later to report he was inside the TARPS bus in a hot, dark place, she said.

“TARTA has great compassion for our customers with disabilities,” the authority said in a statement Wednesday. “We will not tolerate anything less and we certainly will not accept any errors that jeopardize the safety and well-being of our customers.”

First Published October 15, 2020, 1:40 a.m.