He forgot to cancel our date

Guy from my work asked me on a date, and I said yes. We arranged to meet tonight and go for food. He lives in another city (50 miles away) but was down in my city (our office is in my city).

All day, I had no mail from him. Despite catching him online all morning. Come 2pm I text to ask if he was cancelling the date. He replied no and that he’s been in a meeting all day.

3pm I get a text “may need to postpone, will give you a bell later” I reply “no worries”

Come 5:30pm still nothing.
I ask my workmate when he left the office and she replied 2 hours ago.

So I assumed he was back in his city. I text him asking if he was back home, because I hadn’t heard back about the date.

He replied “my kid is unwell I had to get him from school”

I was very upset and told him it would have been nice if he told me earlier because I’ve been waiting about. He said “sorry I forgot”. He was online when he sent this so I tried to call him, and he ignored my call. Then replied saying “sorry cooking my kids tea”

What’s the guys issue here? He asked me on a date? Why wouldn’t he have thought about me on the 50 mile drive home that he needed to cancel.
If I never text him at 5:30, at what point would he have let me know that the date was off.

Has anyone experienced this before? What’s the possible reasons for this? Is it lack of interest?