It's six o'clock and the alarm sounds signaling the start of a
new and very busy day. Mom hurries down stairs to make breakfast, while dad
struggles to get the kids out of bed. After a couple bites of toast, mom rushes
the kids to the bus stop getting them there just in time to hop on.
It's the beginning of every great G-rated family movie.
Not only across the country, but across the world, bus drivers
are making headlines for accidentally leaving one of their student passengers
on the bus after making their rounds. While some have been found in the nick of
time, most of these students have died as a result of sweltering heat.
This weekend, Lelier Perez Hernandez,
a daycare bus driver from Miami, Florida, was charged with aggravated
manslaughter of a child and tampering with physical evidence. On July 12,
Lelier preformed what seemed to be his normal drop off routine at Jomiba
Learning Center. Among the toddlers on
the bus, was a 22-month old boy Dominicue Andrews.
After dropping off his passengers,
Lelier left the bus for the day not realizing that he had not removed Dominicue
Andrews.
After some time, daycare staff realized that the boy was missing and began to look for him. When Lelier went back to check the bus, he realized that the boy was still strapped into his car-seat and was now unresponsive. Panicking, Lelier took the boy out and placed him on the concrete slab next to the daycare in hopes of covering up his mistake.
Lelier later confessed his crime and
is now facing prison time.
Dominicue's family continues to
protest on the streets of Miami, demanding that Hernandez be charged with first
degree murder.
However, these horrific accidents
haven't been restricted to Florida.
A similar but much more fortunate case occurred in Albany, New York where a 4-year- old child, Sylvandale Academy, was not removed from the bus at her stop because she was asleep. After nearly an hour, the bus driver realized that she was still on the bus and returned her to her mother who is now demanding answers.
The Assistant Superintendent of the district is now looking into bus driving procedures and ensures that "it will not happen anymore."
The problem has stretched as far as China.
Zhu Yan, a kindergarten student in Beijing, China, died of heat stroke after being left on the school bus for eight hours. Neither the bus driver or students noticed she was missing until the end of the day when it was too late.