A Quebec courtroom watched with a mixture of tears and horrified silence on Monday as a video was shown of the moment a city bus rammed into a Montreal-area daycare, killing two children and injuring six more.
The video, filmed by cameras inside the bus, shows the crash from the perspective of driver Pierre Ny St-Amand as he made a hard turn into the driveway of the Laval, Que., daycare and accelerated, engines revving, into the building’s side.
The video cuts out after the impact, and in the courtroom the sound of crying broke the silence.
Ny St-Amand, 53, was arrested after the bus he was driving crashed into the front of the daycare on Feb. 8, 2023, killing a four-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl. He is facing two counts of second-degree murder, as well as charges of assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm in relation to six other children who were injured.
Both the Crown and defence have told the Quebec Superior Court judge that he should be found not criminally responsible for his actions.
Prosecutor Karine Dalphond told the court in February that the Crown and defence would present the facts of Ny St-Amand’s case jointly, after two experts independently concluded he should not be held criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.
Ny St-Amand, who wore a grey sweater and appeared with his hands handcuffed in front of him, watched calmly on Monday as video of the crash played on a television suspended from the ceiling. Earlier, as the trial opened, he stood as the charges were read and, in a low voice, confirmed his not guilty plea.
In a summary of facts read by a prosecutor, the court heard that Ny St-Amand never hit the brakes as he headed down the driveway.
Instead, he sped up. “Once in a straight line into the parking lot, he accelerates toward the west side of the building,” the prosecutor said.
The first few hours of the trial gave little indication of what led the accused to commit his alleged act. He had been assigned the bus route by an automatic system and had not requested it, the court heard. A video from the bus cameras, taken earlier in the morning of the crash, showed Ny St-Amand picking up and dropping off passengers in a normal way.
After the crash, Ny St-Amand stood inside the mangled bus and removed his pants, underwear and boots, speaking and yelling incoherently. He was grabbed by two parents, who held him until police arrived, according to the statement of facts.
The trial is expected to last a few days and will include a detailed recounting of the facts and testimony from the two psychiatric experts who concluded he should not be held criminally responsible for his actions.
Superior Court Justice Eric Downs is presiding over the hearings and will make the final decision on Ny St-Amand’s criminal responsibility.
Some of the people who had been present at the crash told reporters outside the courtroom on Monday that the trial had been hard to watch.
Mike Haddad, one of the parents who helped subdue the suspect, said it was troubling to see the video and the suspect’s reaction.
“To see the accused with no remorse or nothing at all in his eyes, it’s shocking,” he said. He added that the likely verdict of not criminally responsible was “difficult to accept” for families.
“If it’s not this person who should go to prison, then who should?” he said.
