Metro has suspended two of its employees after three customers traveling on MetroAccess, the transit system’s van-based service for the disabled, disappeared for more than five hours on Tuesday, as WUSA9’s Dave Statter reports.

Perry Robinson tells 9NEWS NOW when he came home at 8:00 PM his grandmother was not in the house. Robinson called Prince George’s County Police after learning that a Metro Access van picked-up 88-year-old Gertrude Garner at 4:10 PM from Helping Hands Adult Day Care about 10-minutes from Robinson’s home. An employee with the facility confirms for 9NEWS NOW that Garner and at least two other clients got into the van.

According to Robinson, police found his grandmother at a gas station not far from Helping Hands and she was still on the Metro Access van. It is unclear who else was in the vehicle. A Metro Access supervisor delivered Garner to Robinson’s home around 9:45 PM.

The Examiner follows up today, noting that Metro is sticking by its “communications breakdown between the dispatcher and two drivers” theory for this screw-up, while declining to explain why the second driver was suspended, or why the dispatcher was not.