A city bus crashed into a day care center north of Montreal on Wednesday, killing two children and sending six children to the hospital, authorities said. The bus driver was arrested and charged with manslaughter and reckless driving.
Police set up a large perimeter around the building that houses the day care center in Laval, Quebec, and panicked parents who rushed to the center were diverted to a nearby elementary school. Dozens of police and emergency vehicles lined the blocked path leading to the day care center.
Laval police spokeswoman Erika Landry identified the driver as a 51-year-old employee, but did not disclose his name. Laval Mayor Stéphane Boyer said the driver has worked for Societe de transport de Laval for about 10 years and has no major incidents on his record.
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“There is a theory that it was an intentional act, but that has yet to be confirmed by the investigation,” Boyer said. Landry added: “As of right now, we don’t know the reason.”
A man who lives near the daycare said he ran to the scene of the accident and that he and three parents managed to subdue the driver, who he said got out of the bus, took off all his clothes and started screaming.
Parents and their children board a bus as it heats up after a city bus crashed into a day care center in Laval, Quebec on February 8, 2023. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)
“The first thing he did was take off all his clothes after opening the bus door… He was just screaming, no words were coming out of his mouth,” Hamdi Benchaabane said.
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The daycare is located at the end of a cul-de-sac driveway. There is a bus stop at the cul-de-sac, but the driver would have had to veer off the road and head up the long driveway to crash into the building.
Benchaabane said he and the others had to hit the driver to control him, before police handcuffed him. The driver, he said, “was in a different world.”
Benchaabane said he was able to help get a child out of the nursery, adding that he and the others tried to save a second child before firefighters ordered them to leave because pieces of the roof were at risk of falling.
“It was a nightmare, I can’t believe it,” he said of what he witnessed. “It was horrible.”
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Aerial news footage from the scene shows the bus crashing into the front of the day care center. The building is located at the end of a driveway and the bus driver would have had to run off the road to hit it.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his office was “closely monitoring the situation.”
