Tara Steers, Bianca Reynolds sentenced for leaving child in bus

The mother of a three-year-year old girl who nearly died after six hours locked in a daycare bus has revealed the shocking failure ripped her family apart and continues to haunt them daily. VIDEO, PHOTOS.

The family of a child left on a daycare centre bus for six hours before her limp body was discovered still strapped inside, are furious neither worker responsible will spend time behind bars.

It comes after Rockhampton District Court heard the devastating failure and subsequent hospital and psychological trauma had led to the separation of the girl’s parents and “wrecked” her life.

Tears were shed by the three-year-old’s still distraught family and the centre’s former director Bianca Maree Reynolds, 32 and bus driver Tara Alyce Steers, 31.

The women were responsible for the girl who was left in a critical condition after being found at the Rockhampton region centre on May 4, 2022.

Tara Alyce Steers, arriving at the Rockhampton Courthouse on June 26, 2023, with her legal representatives.

Both pleaded guilty on Wednesday to grievous bodily harm.

Judge Michael Rackemann sentenced Reynolds to a three-year jail term, wholly suspended and operational for five years.

He sentenced Steers, the driver and a senior educator, to two years and eight months’ jail, also wholly suspended and operational for five years.

This means that so long as they do not reoffend within that five-year period, neither woman has to serve actual jail time.

Both women lost their jobs and cannot work in the industry as a result of this incident, the court heard.

Bianca Maree Reynolds arriving at the Rockhampton Courthouse on June 26, 2023, with her legal representatives.

Outside court, the little girl’s family expressed their anger at the sentences.

Her grandmother said: “they just walked out with nothing … that’s not justice … that is wrong.”

She said she felt that if a parent, or other family member, had left a child in a car in similar circumstances, they would be in jail.

While the court heard the girl had made a full physical recovery, she would require ongoing supervision of her development which could be impacted by the medical issues stemming from the ordeal.

The grandmother said this had impacted the whole family.

“We have to live with it every day,” she said.

“Every day we think about how lucky we are that (she) is still here.”

She also said many family members now woke up from nightmares and her granddaughter had abandonment issues.

“You can’t leave the loungeroom without (the child) asking ‘where are you going?’,” the grandmother said.

“Because (the child) thinks (they) are going to be left behind.”

The child’s father was visibly upset at the sentences but struggled to find the words, simply telling the waiting media pack: “I’m pissed off”.

‘Can’t leave the room’: Mum’s harrowing victim impact statement

Earlier, Judge Michael Rackemann told the court the three victim impact statements provided “speak of the horror of that day which will live with the family forever” and how the child did not return to any form of daycare for some time and was now resistant to attending “in case something bad happens to her”.

The victim’s mother reiterated this in her victim impact statement she wrote for the court and shared with this publication.

She wrote:

“I can’t leave the room without her needing to know where I am, (she) has a panic (attack) if the car is stopped at a drive-through or something.

“And soon as we park up she needs to get the belt off straight away, when she cries she cries like no one can hear her, and wakes me up some mornings by pushing my chest almost like CPR.

“It‘s affected me more than I realised, from the nightmares, the zoning, and often depressed, I’m scared to send them to school, I get a phone call from the daycare and my heart races and I panic and don’t want to answer it (obviously I do cause I have to) but yeah I panic when I said “daycare” number comes up.

“(My child) wakes up in the middle night screaming, her tantrums started after that happened,

“It’s one of the main causes of us (her parents) splitting up, whether we want to admit it or not.”

The grandmother said the tragedy had “wrecked” the child’s life.

“There is no recovery,” she said.

The court was also told the women responsible had suffered their own psychological impacts from the incident.

Not only had they lost their jobs and careers, Reynolds had also received counselling and Steers diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as “a result of coming to terms with what they did”, the court heard.

Reynolds’ barrister Scott Moon said his client, during conversations with her lawyers, had expressed how “significantly devastated” she was at the impact of this on the victim and their family.

He told the court his client asked if he could pass on her “very deep regret and apology” for what occurred.

Judge Rackemann said he accepted both women were “deeply remorseful” and their grief was evident from their demeanour in court.

Both were seen wiping tears away throughout the proceedings and their heads remained, most of the time, downcast.

Workers who left child in daycare bus for six hours arrive at court

Never before heard facts of what happened the day a toddler was left on a childcare bus for six hours have been revealed in court as two workers are sentenced for their roles in the devastating failure.

Tara Alyce Steers, 31, and Bianca Maree Reynolds have both pleaded guilty in Rockhampton District Court to one count of grievous bodily harm.

The women were responsible for leaving a child, who was later discovered in a critical condition, locked in the bus all day on May 4, 2022.

Police at the daycare centre where a child was found in critical condition after being left inside a bus for six hours. Photo Steve Vit

During the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Joshua Phillips outlined how the two women repeatedly failed to follow the centre’s procedures and regulations imposed by governments in response to a case in Cairns in 2020 where a child died after being left in a childcare bus.

He also revealed it was another employee at the centre who raised the alarm after having driven the bus to a nearby primary school that afternoon and upon the remote failing to lock the bus, noticed the sliding door ajar.

When the employee went to slam the sliding door shut, the child victim’s pale and limp body was discovered, still strapped into the seat, eyes open but unresponsive.

Judge Michael Rackemann is set to hand down the pair’s sentences at noon today.

Originally published as Tara Steers, Bianca Reynolds sentenced for leaving child in bus