Boy, 3, left for dead in minibus outside Hambledon State School
The little boy climbed onto the daycare minibus at 9.30am. Six hours later he was found dead. What happened on that tragic day – the errors and the missing moments – remains unanswered.
Police & Courts
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POLICE are yet to interview the driver over the death of a three-year-old boy on a daycare bus in Cairns.
The male driver is distraught and being treated for shock at Cairns Hospital after making the grisly discovery of the child’s body yesterday.
Detective Inspector Jason Smith said the boy was picked up from his home at 9.30am and found dead at 3.15pm.
He said officers were identifying a timeline of the movements of the Good Start Early Learning minibus.
But it was unclear if the child was inside the motor vehicle for the entirety of that time, on a day when temperatures soared as high as 36C outside.
“We’re looking at CCTV across the city to track the movements of the subject vehicle,” Insp Smith said.
“We know the driver of the vehicle had other appointments.
“But exactly where the child was we are yet to confirm.
“We’ll be doing our best to get to the bottom of this.”
Police have seized as evidence from the childcare centre a passenger checklist of which children got on and off the bus.
Insp Smith said ambulance officers were the first to respond to the scene at Hambledon State School in Edmonton, where the bus was parked, and did what they could but were unable to save the child.
“The mother of the child was advised and we have two indigenous family liaison officers from the police who are working to keep the family informed of the investigation and to provide them with support,” he said.
“This is a terrible situation; the death of a small child is a horrific thing.
“Particularly for the family this is horrific, and they are distraught.”
He declined to say if the boy’s siblings were on the bus.
“We’re keeping an open mind in regard to this investigation, a number of things are at play, but nothing short than a thorough investigation will reveal the truth,” Insp Smith said.
“It’s early in the investigation, but I’m confident in the near future we will have a clearer picture.”
Goodstart Early Learning services have suspended their pick up and drop off services at all centres around Australia in the wake of the death.
The Edmonton Goodstart centre has also been closed today, with the service to update families.
Education Minister Grace Grace, who oversees Queensland’s childcare centre regulator, said it was too early to answer questions around whether regulators were investigating the centre following the boy’s death.
“This is a terrible tragedy and I offer my sincere condolences to all involved,” she said.
“The Queensland Police Service remain the lead agency in the investigation and both the Department of Education and Workplace HSQ will continue to assist them as necessary.
“At this early stage of the investigation it would be inappropriate to speculate, but we remain ready to assist the QPS with any investigations.”
Both Grace Grace and Transport Minister Mark Bailey have sent directives to their respective departments urging all drivers and educators to “look before they lock” vehicles transporting children.
Ms Grace said while the circumstances of the incident are yet to be determined, the message was clear to drivers and operators.
“There have been too many incidents of children being left behind on buses in the past year,” she said.
“Parents need to have peace of mind that when they send their children off to school, kindy or day care, they will come home safe.”
Mr Bailey warned one shortcut on safety could have life-long consequences with every driver obligated to walk the length of their bus and check for passengers before locking up.
“The vast majority of bus operators and drivers are professionals who acknowledge their duty of care and take safety extremely seriously,” Mr Bailey said.
He said the departmental Directors-Generals had an urgent meeting to develop actions for addressing the safety of children on buses.
Goodstart Early Learning chief executive Julia Davison has issued a statement which said the service sent their “deepest condolences to the family of the small boy who died in our care in Cairns yesterday”.
“It is a great responsibility to care for a child, and each day tens of thousands of families entrust their precious children to us. It is not a responsibility we take lightly,” Ms Davison said.
“While we don’t yet understand the circumstances of yesterday’s tragedy, we will of course do everything in our power to assist the authorities with their investigation.”
She said the service was providing counselling for all staff and families in need, ensuring they provide support in the coming days and weeks.
“We have made the decision to temporarily suspend our bus services from today,” Ms Davison said.
“This was not an easy decision to make as this service enables many vulnerable children to access early learning, however we need to ensure our safety processes and procedures are the best they can be.
“Our bus services will complete their scheduled pick up and drop off services today, with additional checks in place until all children are home this afternoon.”
Appearing on Channel 9’s Today this morning, Ms Davison admitted the organisation doesn’t know what happened but that all bus services ferrying children to daycare would be cancelled.
“All of our 15,000 educators are devastated and shocked,” she said.
“It is every family’s worst nightmare that something might happen to their child and it is every educator’s worst nightmare something might happen to a child in their care.”
“Obviously we will do anything we possibly can to reach out and support the family of the young boy who tragically died yesterday. We have got counselling services on the ground to support other families and educators.
“Obviously there’s the police investigation that has already commenced. There will be various other agencies who are involved in investigations. We have decided, as a precaution — this has been a very difficult decision for us to make — to not use our buses from later today.
“We want to be conservative, we want to actually understand and make sure that we have got every possible procedure in place, that all of our staff have received refresher training.
“We obviously don’t know what happened in this particular incident but we want to be cautious but at the same time we’re a not-for-profit that picks up and collects lots of vulnerable children who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to access early learning.”
Cairns has had record breaking temperatures for the last week, with the mercury soaring to 34.4C at 2.30pm yesterday.
According to Bureau of Meteorology data, the apparent temperature – which takes into account the humidity – reached almost 38C.
On Saturday, it was 40C – which eclipsed the previous record of 39.7C, recorded just days beforehand.
Earlier this year, The Courier-Mail revealed an investigation had been launched into how a five-year-old boy was left unattended in a locked kindy bus for more than 40 minutes at Yarrabilba, south of Brisbane.
Tyler Walton fell asleep in the Marsden Kindergarten and Child Care Centre bus after a kindy outing in December.
Last night, the Department of Education could not comment on the child’s death.
Police said a report was being prepared for the coroner.
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