Girl found unconscious on childcare bus
Police are investigating after a three-year-old girl was found unconscious on a bus at a central Queensland childcare centre.
Police are investigating after a three-year-old girl was found unconscious on a bus at a central Queensland childcare centre.
The girl was found in the mini-van parked out the front of Le Smiley’s Early Learning Centre on Lucas Street, Gracemere, near Rockhampton, shortly before 3pm on Wednesday.
She was taken to Rockhampton Hospital in critical condition.
It is unknown how long the child was on the bus.
Police officers spent the afternoon at the scene and were seen photographing the bus.
It comes after an incident in February 2020 in which a three-year-old boy died after he was left on a bus in sweltering heat at a Goodstart Early Learning centre in Cairns.
The boy was found after 3pm and had allegedly spent almost six hours on the bus after failing to get off when it arrived at the centre in the morning.
The driver of the bus, Michael Glenn Lewis, was jailed for six years last year after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Former childcare educator Dionne Batrice Grills, who was also on the bus, was last month found not guilty of manslaughter after a five-day trial in the Supreme Court.
A review was conducted into Goodstart Early Learning centre’s bus pick-up policy procedures and staff training as well as buses temporarily suspended.
The Department of Education last year issued an alert outlining steps that should be taken by drivers and operators to ensure children were not left unattended.
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