Laval bus driver rams daycare center, 2 dead, 6 injured

[viper37]

Laval is a city (island) on the north shore of Montreal.  The police have arrested the driver and charged him with dangerous driving and homicide.

All points to a deliberate act.  News report says the driver was a in crisis state, stripping down after ramming his bus through the daycare center, parents tackled him and the police proceeded to his arrest.

The daycare has 80 kids of all ages, the bus hit the part with the oldest kids, apparently.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/stl-bus-crashes-into-laval-daycare-centre-multiple-injuries-reported

Two children died after a Laval city bus intentionally crashed into a daycare centre in Laval's Ste-Rose district Wednesday morning, the city's police department said.
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Another six children have been brought to various hospitals in Montreal and Laval, police spokesperson Erika Landry told reporters at a 12:15 p.m. briefing
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Doctors do not fear for their lives.

One adult was transported to a hospital for nervous shock, she said.

A 51-year-old driver with Laval's public transit agency is set to be charged with homicide and dangerous driving. The motive is not yet known.

The driver has worked for the STL for about 10 years.

"It's terrible – it's a terrible tragedy," Bonnardel Public Security Minister Francois Bonnardel in Quebec City.

Bonnardel is expected to visit the scene.

Montreal's Ste-Justine children's hospital has received some of the injured.

The hospital said in a statement it is "welcoming the young victims with serious injuries requiring urgent care. The hospital centre teams are doing everything they can to treat patients, but also to support families in this tragic situation."
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The crash occurred at 8:30 a.m., just as parents were dropping off their children. The daycare is at the end of a driveway, and the bus driver would have had to leave the road and drive down the driveway to hit the building. Images from the scene show a bus firmly embedded in the front of the building, identified as the Garderie Éducative Ste-Rose.

Hamdi Ben Chaabane, who said he lives near the daycare, said he and several other people tried to subdue the bus driver. Ben Chaabane said he believed the driver deliberately drove into the building.

The 151 bus stops in a roundabout at the bottom of Terrasse Dufferin. However, the daycare is set back from the street, at the end of a private driveway and parking lot.

Ginette Lamoureux and her husband live close by. While her husband and others helped subdue the driver, Lamoureux entered the daycare to help however she could.
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The roof had partially collapsed and there was debris everywhere, she said.

Children were huddled in a back room.

"I couldn't stay there, it was too difficult," said Lamoureux, 66. "Children were screaming and crying. It was awful. It's horrible."

   
Laval police secure the scene after an STL bus crashed into a daycare centre Feb. 8, 2023. Photo by ANNE-SOPHIE THILL /AFP via Getty Images
"It wasn't an accident from what I saw," Ben Chaabane told reporters.

He said after the crash, the bus driver, screaming, opened the bus door and started taking all off his clothes.

"We had to hit him to subdue him, and we got him on the ground, and then the police put the handcuffs on him," Ben Chaabane said.

He said they helped get one child out from underneath the bus and then firefighters arrived and took over. Benchaabane said children were inside the daycare at the time of the crash and parents were still arriving to drop their kids off.


Quebec Premier François Legault said on social media: "There is nothing worse than fearing for one's child."

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[HVC]

Stripped naked? Could have also been a really bad trip.

[viper37]

Stripped naked? Could have also been a really bad trip.

Could be.

The only thing certain is it's impossible to be an accident.  The way the daycare is located, you got to hit it on purpose.  Even if the bus had had a breaking problem, it wouldn't have ended up there.