How did ‘missing’ 10-year-old get on the bus alone?

Stories of missing children don’t always end well, which is why many of us sighed in relief when we learned the missing 10-year-old Redmond girl was found safe in Seattle.

But how did she get there? Apparently she took a bus.

The first question I have is how a 10-year-old girl managed to get on a bus without raising the suspicions of the bus driver. Kids aged 6 and up, in theory, can ride the bus without parental consent. At least, that’s what a somewhat confused customer service representative explained when I called to ask. The representative initially didn’t know, but then asked his supervisor who essentially said that you wouldn’t need consent based on the fare rules.

This was the subject of some debate between the staff and me. I find it troublesome that a 10-year-old can get on a bus without a reasonable questioning from the bus driver. The staff seems to think this is normal (and perhaps it is). But, there’s a very large set of rules governing when you can bring animals on board. In comparison, it seems the rules governing children on board are lax.

Related: Where are all the parents?

Do I expect a bus driver to conduct a detailed investigation into why a girl is on the bus alone? No. But, certainly some level of judgment should be used in gauging the appropriateness of the situation.

If you see a girl, 10, wondering alone at 8 p.m. down a sidewalk around town, don’t you ask the girl if everything is okay? Don’t you keep an eye on her for a bit and, at the very least, think about calling the police to report what you’re seeing?

Perhaps the girl arrived with a group of people and the bus driver believed the girl to be with the adults.

As of now, we don’t know, as the King County Sheriff’s Department doesn’t know who the bus driver in question was, nor do they plan (at this point, at least) to look into this case more, given the happy ending.

Is this concern my 33-year-old, childless naivety? Should it be so easy for a 10-year-old to get on a bus alone? What about a 7-year-old? Does the time of day matter?