Quebec parents recount moments after bus rammed day care center

>> Parents returned Thursday to the Montreal-area day care center where two children were killed when a bus rammed into the building, stopping to grieve and to recount the difficult moments they witnessed.

André Beaudoin, a father of a 2-year-old boy who attends the center in Laval, said he had to push through debris Wednesday to help pull injured children from under the bus, which had shattered the front of the building.

“I managed to get four out; the last girl … her head was stuck really bad,” he said.

Beaudoin said he had just parked to drop off his son when he saw the city bus barrel into the day care. He said he ran into the building, and although most of the children had fled, “we heard the screams” of those still trapped.

Two children, both 4 years old, were killed and six were hospitalized. Pierre Ny St-Amand, a 51-year-old driver with the Laval transit corporation, was arrested at the scene and later charged with two counts of first-degree murder as well as seven other charges, including attempted murder and aggravated assault.

Two of the six children had been released from the hospital, while four youngsters remained under treatment, Montreal health officials said.

Pierre Ny St-Amand, a 51-year-old driver with the Laval transit corporation, was arrested at the scene Wednesday. He faces two counts of first-degree murder as well as seven other charges, including attempted murder and aggravated assault.

Authorities said Thursday that they were still trying to understand what could have led someone to drive a bus into the daycare center.

“The motive remains incomprehensible still today,” Public Security Minister François Bonnardel told reporters in Quebec City. Asked what authorities could have done to prevent the incident, Bonnardel said: “No one can predict this kind of event. No one can predict that someone gets up in the morning, takes off with a bus and decides to hit a daycare with a bus.”

Witnesses said the driver was delirious after exiting the bus, tore off his clothes and screamed as several people restrained him.