As the days moves forward in the Remi Cormier inquest.
It sounds more and more like Human error.
The bus driver will testify in the morning but there must be something good coming from this inquest than human error.
So far, I believe that the School district is at fault for such little training for a new bus driver on a new route. But what the hell do I know? I will keep you inform!
Here's some story from the media!
Brother recounts fatal bus accident
Click to zoom (Andrew Philips/Telegraph-Journal)
Nadine Cormier, right, seen here with her mother Huguette LeBlanc, said she doesn't understand how a bus driver failed to see her son Remi in his rearview mirror.
BY ANDREW PHILIPS
Telegraph-Journal
In the aftermath of the school bus accident last April 6 that took the life of his five-year-old brother Remi, Justin Cormier said he slumped down in his school bus seat when he realized the vehicle had struck his younger sibling
Tuesday, presiding coroner Gloria Merrithew and a five-member jury heard the words of Justin, now 11, given to Shediac RCMP Const. Etienne Boudreau
"I laid down on the bench because I didn't want to see or hear anything," he said.
The accident happened just outside the Cormiers' Cap-Bimet home. The boys took the bus every morning to nearby Grand-Barachois in southeastern New Brunswick.
"Remi had decided to play while I was outside waiting for the bus," Justin's statement reads, noting that a little later Remi was getting something out of the family car while Justin boarded the bus.
From there, Justin said he assumed Remi would wait for the bus to turn around at the end of the road and catch it on its return trip up the road.
"I was sitting on the front seat," Justin said in the statement. "I got up and saw Remi (running) in the driver's mirror. I said to the bus driver, 'my brother,' and then I said it to him again.
"The driver continued to move forward and the other children cried, 'Stop.' Then I knew it had happened because I felt the bump."
Justin said he then looked in the bus's driver-side mirror and noticed Remi lying on the road. The bus turned around and parked at the roadside before reaching Remi.
"I heard the driver say, 'Oh no, ' " he said.
Const. Boudreau said driver France Cormier appeared to be in shock following the incident. A police investigation laid no charges.
"He was very emotional," Const. Boudreau said. "A second bus was called to take the children to school."
As part of Tuesday's inquest, family members and the coroner's jury were taken to view a school bus parked at Moncton High School. They were shown bus safety features such as convex and regular mirrors that seem to provide a full view of the vehicle's front and sides.
Nadine Cormier fought back tears as she sat behind a school-bus steering wheel. It was part of a demonstration examining whether her young son Remi could have been caught in a blind-spot when he was hit and killed by his bus last year.
"It was very hard to go on the bus," Mrs. Cormier said Tuesday after getting off the vehicle.
Added family spokesman Al Breau: "You could see a dog walking in front and on both sides of the bus (with the mirrors). There's absolutely no reason he was not seen."
Paul Lemay, of Transport Canada's school-bus safety research branch, testified a bus's mirrors are only efficient if they are properly adjusted by the driver to his individual specifications.
But Mr. Lemay said school-bus safety has improved dramatically over the years with buses now considered 60 times safer than regular vehicles. He said researchers are now trying to develop a sensor system, which would alert a driver if someone's standing near the bus.
"We realize we have to do a better job, because one accident is one too many," he said.
The jury also heard from a mechanic, who said the bus involved in the accident was in good working order, and from RCMP accident reconstruction specialist Const. Gilbert Morneault, who was called to the scene to try to determine just how the accident occurred.
"The body was 19 metres from (his) driveway," Const. Morneault said. "There's nothing to suggest to me he was dragged."
The inquest continues in a Moncton courtroom today with officials from School District 11 expected to testify.
================================================================================--
Victim's mother adamant:
Driver should have seen son
Jury inspects school bus as inquest continues into death of five-year-old Grand-Barachois boy
RHONDA WHITTAKER
Times & Transcript Staff
Wearing a pained grimace, Nadine Cormier sat in the driver's seat of the school bus that killed her youngest son.
She continued to frown as the transportation expert at her side showed her how she could see the exterior front of the bus, and both sides, in the reflection of six mirrors attached to the vehicle.
To help her see what the driver would see, an adult volunteer crouched in front of the passenger side wheel to assume the same height as a child.
Cormier's eyes ran back and forth between the six mirrors. Her face crumpled. She buried her head in her hands, shaking with sobs.
Later, she talked about how hard it was to board the bus. She said she didn't intend to get on, but decided it was her last chance to see it.
"It is clear to me I know after doing this exercise - that the bus driver did not look in the mirrors," Nadine Cormier said.
"It was impossible for the driver not to see him."
The six-year-old conventional school bus was on display at the Moncton High School parking lot yesterday as part of a provincial coroner's inquest into the death of five-year-old Rémi Cormier of Grand-Barachois. Jurors, the family, and later, the media, were invited to look it over to help them understand testimony about safety features and operation.
Rémi Cormier, a kindergarten student at Pere Edgar-T. LeBlanc School, died on April 6 of last year after he crossed his street to board his school bus, and it hit him.
On Monday the jury heard that Rémi and his older brother always caught the bus at the end of their driveway on the Cap-Bimet Road, not across the street, and that a new driver was driving the bus the day Rémi died.
Yesterday the second day of an expected four-day hearing - the five-person jury heard detailed analyses of school bus safety from technical experts and mechanics.
Daniel Landry, a technician with Metro International, testified that there were no mechanical malfunctions on the bus that could have contributed to the accident.
Douglas Donegani, who oversees school bus purchases and management for the New Brunswick government, confirmed Landry's findings, and said everything on the bus that hit Rémi met or exceeded safety requirements.
David White is director of motor carrier administration with the Nova Scotia government, and was past chairman of the national School Bus Construction Standards Committee.
White acknowledged that the most dangerous place for passengers to be is not inside the bus, but at the bus stop.
"I can almost guarantee a child's safety while inside the vehicle, but bus stops are an area that constantly create problems," he said.
"There are so many human factors to take into account at a bus stop."
For instance, White said, the bus must pull up directly at the passengers' bus stop, not beyond it. It's dangerous for students to approach their bus at an angle, as Rémi had to on April 6.
He testified that buses are equipped with a series of mirrors that allow drivers to see within three metres (10 feet) in front of the bus's nose, at a 30-degree angle on the left and right, as well as the same distance around the length of the bus's body - areas known as the "danger zone."
White told the jury that adjustments to the mirrors are critical, because drivers' sightlines vary, depending on their height. In order to do major adjustments, the driver must use a wrench.
Through Luc Labonte, legal counsel to presiding coroner Gloria Merrithew, a juror asked if the buses come equipped with wrenches. White said they didn't.
Earlier in the day, RCMP officer Const. Etienne Boudreau recounted information he got from Rémi's older brother, 11-year-old Justin Cormier, who had already boarded the bus when it hit Rémi.
Justin told the officer that the day before the accident, the family slept in, and the boys' father, Michel Cormier, drove them to school. Only Justin took the bus home from school because Rémi finished his day earlier than Justin. That's why Justin knew that the driver was new, and that day - April 5 - was the first on his route.
On the morning of April 6, 2004, instead of turning around at the nearby fish plant and then picking up the boys at the end of the driveway, Justin said, the bus stopped across the street, past their house.
"I could see the bus's brake lights," his statement to police said.
Justin crossed and boarded. Thinking Rémi would wait for the bus to turn around and get him at the foot of the driveway, Justin took his seat in the front, diagonally across from the driver.
He stood up when he saw Rémi in the driver's left-hand mirror running towards the front of the bus.
"My brother! My brother!" he told the driver.
The driver continued to move forward and the other children cried, "Whoa! Stop!"
"Then I knew it happened because I felt the thump," Justin said in his statement.
The bus continued moving toward the fish plant.
"I had seen Rémi on the road through the school bus's mirrors. I asked the driver could I go see Rémi because still no-one was with him," Justin said.
He said the driver told him he was going to turn the bus around. Once it did, Justin could see his mother rushing to Rémi's body on the road. He heard the driver say, "Oh, no," then drove up the road and parked the bus near the scene of the accident.
"I laid down on the bench because I didn't want to see or hear what was happening," Justin told police. He waited there until an aunt came to get him.
RCMP officer Boudreau said he spoke with the bus driver, France Cormier, following the accident.
"He was very emotional about the whole thing," Boudreau said.
"He was in shock."
RCMP ruled out any criminal charges in the incident.
Accident reconstructionist Const. Gilbert Morneault told the jury that it was difficult for him to assess the speed of the bus because it continued moving, and then was parked, after the boy was hit. He said there was no indication that Rémi was dragged under the bus or thrown from the impact.
The inquest continues in Moncton Court of Queen's Bench this morning. Witnesses from the Department of Education, including the district and school level, are expected to appear to discuss student transportation.
Enquête sur le décès du jeune Rémi Cormier : «Le chauffeur d’autobus n’a pas regardé dans ses miroirs»
Sheila Lagacé - 6 juillet 2005
MONCTON - C’est une deuxième journée qui a une fois de plus été forte en émotions pour les parents de Rémi Cormier.
Sheila Lagacé L’Acadie NOUVELLE sheila.lagace@acadienouvelle.com
L’enquête concernant le décès tragique du jeune garçon, happé mortellement par son autobus scolaire en avril 2004, s’est poursuivie, hier. L’efficacité des dispositifs de sécurité dans les autobus scolaires a été au coeur des audiences, cette fois-ci, alors que les témoignages poignants des parents de la jeune victime ont pris l’avant-scène, lundi.
Afin que le jury et la famille de la victime comprennent adéquatement le fonctionnement des dispositifs de sécurité d’un autobus scolaire, ils ont pu assister à une démonstration en fin de matinée. L’autobus utilisé au cours de l’exercice était identique à celui qui avait heurté Rémi Cormier.
Cette activité a rouvert des blessures encore fragiles dans le coeur de la mère du petit Rémi, Nadine Cormier. Assise sur le siège du conducteur, elle a fondu en larmes. Elle a dû sortir du véhicule pendant un moment pour se ressaisir et sécher ses pleurs.
«C’est vraiment dur, a avoué Nadine Cormier. Je planifiais de le faire et, quand je suis arrivée ici, je me suis dit que c’était ma dernière chance de le faire. Mais c’était vraiment difficile» a-t-elle ajouté.
D’après les témoignages des personnes qui ont inspecté l’autobus impliqué dans cet accident, le véhicule ne présentait aucune défectuosité et les freins étaient en bon état.
L’enquête publique présentement en cours cherche à clarifier les faits et les circonstances entourant la mort du jeune garçon de Cap-Bimet.
Lors de cette démonstration, la famille de la victime et le jury qui émettra des recommandations dans cette affaire ont été initiés au système de miroirs de l’autobus. Comme l’a expliqué le représentant du ministère de l’Éducation sur place pour faire la démonstration, Ron Arsenault, le système à six miroirs permet d’avoir une vision continue des points morts entourant le véhicule, autant des deux côtés qu’à l’avant. Il n’y a que la partie arrière que le chauffeur ne peut voir.
«Il est clair pour moi maintenant, après avoir fait cet exercice, que le chauffeur d’autobus n’a pas regardé dans ses miroirs parce que j’ai vu qu’on pouvait y voir n’importe quoi tout autour», a relaté Nadine Cormier. «Vous pouvez voir un chien marcher en face et aux deux côtés de l’autobus, a repris Al Breau, porte-parole de la famille Cormier. Il n’y a aucune raison qu’il (le conducteur) ne l’a pas vu.»
La famille de Rémi Cormier a également pu constater que le bras de sécurité situé à l’avant de l’autobus reste ouvert, même quand la porte est fermée à 98 %. Cet élément leur a permis de comprendre un peu mieux pourquoi le petit Rémi a couru devant l’autobus, le matin du tragique accident qui lui a coûté la vie.
Ce bras de sécurité oblige les élèves qui sortent de l’autobus à traverser à une distance de trois mètres du véhicule, ce qui leur permet de voir le chauffeur et vice versa.
Cette enquête se poursuit aujourd’hui et demain, alors que des représentants du ministère de l’Éducation ainsi que le chauffeur de l’autobus passeront sous interrogatoire. Le jury se retirera par la suite pour émettre ses recommandations qui auront pour but d’éviter que des décès de même nature se produisent à l’avenir.
— Avec des extraits de Canadian Press
No comments:
Post a Comment