City bus 'deliberately' crashed into daycare in Montreal, killing two children

A city bus “deliberately” crashed into a daycare in the Montreal suburb of Laval on Wednesday, killing two children and injuring six others, according to authorities. 

The driver of the bus, identified as 51-year-old Pierre Ny St-Amand, was arrested and charged with reckless driving and first-degree murder, Laval police said. He had worked for the municipalities public transit system for about ten years and had no prior criminal history. 

“We think it’s deliberate but we don’t know the motive,” said Laval police chief Pierre Brochet.

“There were no signs of skidmarks ... He went directly into the daycare,” said an eyewitness, Mario Sirois.

The driver crashed the city bus into the front of the daycare that had about 80 children under the age of five, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. After running into the building, the driver stepped out of the bus, removed his clothes, and started screaming. A group of parents managed to subdue the driver. 

“The first thing he did was take off all his clothes after opening the bus door ... He was just yelling; no words were coming out of his mouth,” said Hamdi Benchaabane, a witness. 

The two casualties were four years old. The six children that were injured were rushed to the hospital, where they are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, Brochet added.

“Everyone is terribly saddened by what has occurred,” Quebec’s families minister Suzanne Roy said. “When you leave your children at the daycare for the day, you know that they’re in good hands ... when an event like that can happen, it shakes us and shatters us."