Family seeks answers after they say their son was trapped on Access Link bus for 2 hours

When Mahadeo Singh’s 20-year-old son got his first job working part-time at a FedEx distribution center three months ago, it was a big deal for the family.

Singh’s son, Shah Singh, is developmentally disabled and had interviewed for numerous jobs before landing the one at FedEx.

“He’s so proud. I opened his own bank account, he checks his account, he’s so happy. He gets his $200 or whatever he gets every week, he’s pumped,” Mahadeo Singh said. “He wants to be independent. We were lucky to get Access Link, which we thought was a blessing for him because we couldn’t afford to pay Uber back and forth every day.”

The rides with Access Link, a service overseen by NJ Transit that transports seniors and people with disabilities, were going well for the first few months — until last month.

Mahadeo Singh said his son scheduled a pickup for between noon and 12:30 p.m. for his 1:30 p.m. shift at work, a drive that should take 15 minutes. The driver arrived at their Middlesex County home around 12:50 p.m., then picked up and dropped off another passenger nearby, which took about 20 minutes. She then drove to an unknown location nearby and parked there for about two hours with Shah Singh still in the vehicle, both Mahadeo and Shah said in separate phone interviews.

“I felt scared, crying. I didn’t know what she would do with me,” Shah Singh said, adding that the driver didn’t answer when he asked what was going on.

“During that time my son started to cry and begged the driver to please take him to his destination, and she disregarded his pleas,” Mahadeo Singh said. “He called his mom and put her on speaker, and she in turn pleaded with the driver to please take him to his destination, and she paid them no mind.”

Dispatcher was no help

Mahadeo Singh said his wife called Access Link while on the phone with her sobbing son, but the dispatcher was no help, at one point suggesting that the drop-off had been made when that wasn’t the case. Eventually, Shah Singh got to his destination — at 3:30 p.m., they said.

When he showed up, Shah Singh said, his boss told him to go home because he was already two hours late for his shift. He waited 45 minutes for another Access Link ride to get home.

Mahadeo Singh said he called Access Link numerous times to complain and said no one from NJ Transit or Access Link has called him back. Shah Singh said he is scared to use Access Link but resumed using it several times in the week since with no issue. Then, just about a week after the incident, Mahadeo Singh said, the same driver showed up to take his son to work.

That ride went smoothly, but the father said he’s furious.

“I was in tears when I heard this story. My wife was crying, he was crying,” he said. “Something needs to be done.”

First day on the job

NJ Transit spokesman Jim Smith said the May 24 incident occurred on the driver’s first day on the job.

“An error occurred by the dispatcher, resulting in the removal of the drop-off from the driver’s GPS and trip log,” Smith said. “The operator failed to contact the dispatcher to alert them of the issue. When the parents called, we became aware of the situation and addressed the incident at that time.”

The driver was removed from service, retrained and returned to service, Smith said. NJ Transit is conducting an investigation into what happened.

“We follow up with all customers following the completion of our investigation, which was scheduled for this week,” Smith said on June 1. By June 7, the Singh family said, they had not yet heard from NJ Transit.

Smith also said the driver wasn’t stopped for two hours, but Mahadeo Singh said that’s not true.

“I’m so upset,” he said. “I was just hoping they would own up, take ownership and be apologetic. They have not contacted us.”

“This child wants to be responsible, he wants to do things, he doesn’t want to be a burden to someone,” Mahadeo Singh said.

'Everyone has an Access Link story'

Shah Singh's experience on Access Link is not unique. As Steve Gruzlovic put it: “Everyone has an Access Link story."

Gruzlovic, a wheelchair user and Access Link customer for more than a decade, said situations like the one Shah Singh experienced “leave a lasting imprint in someone’s mind and memory, and they’re always going to worry is it going to happen again.”

Gruzlovic, who heads the transportation committee for the New Jersey State Independent Living Council, said there have been multiple times when the GPS location drops from a driver’s navigation tool. In those cases, he said, the driver always communicated with the passengers about what was going on, adding that drivers have multiple ways of getting help from Access Link when that happens. Gruzlovic said he has even directed a driver using his phone’s GPS system.

GPS reliability is one things Gruzlovic said is starting to improve because the agency is piloting a Google interface in certain regions.

New partnership with Uber and Lyft

Other improvements include restructuring contracts to improve competition and launching an app to schedule rides, and NJ Transit recently announced a new partnership with Uber and Lyft to supplement service using the ride-sharing platforms through a pilot program. The agency also recently settled two federal cases that require them to make numerous repairs to improve accessibility at five stations, reduce call wait times and improve on-time performance and excessively long trips.

But the agency still has a long way to go to make the service reliable and efficient, Gruzlovic said.

“As far as individuals with disabilities being traumatized by situations like this, yes, it does happen, yes, it can happen, and they need to do a better job,” Gruzlovic said. “Transportation, especially in this state, is a big part of why we don’t have jobs. How are we going to get a job if we can’t get there?”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Family says son was trapped on Access Link bus in NJ