Family of Montreal boy living with lasting injuries after being hit by school bus questions why driver only got ticket

It was supposed to be just another school day for then five-year-old Abhiram Arkesh.

But as he got off his school bus in Saint-Laurent on Jan. 29, the bus started moving again, running him over.

Abhiram suffered severe injuries and spent a month in hospital. The now six-year-old still hasn’t returned to school.

“He lost his ability to choose the profession. He cannot do serious sports,” his father Arkesh Narayanappa told CityNews.

“Because of his winter shoes, his foot is OK, it’s saved. Otherwise, his foot is completely gone,” added his mother Monika Ganagaluru Srinivas.

Surveillance video obtained from a nearby neighbour appears to show four children getting off the bus and crossing the street in front of the driver. Abhiram was the last to get off. As he reached the front of the bus, it started moving again.

“When he hits the young child, you see the way the bus moves,” said André Durocher, the director of the CAA-Québec Foundation for Road Safety. “I mean this is not just like a piece of ice that he went over. So he should have at least checked to see, ‘OK, what did I hit over here?’ Because obviously you could see the bus going up and down.”

According to the family, the driver only received a traffic ticket of $1,093. The SPVM told CityNews in an email their investigation “revealed no criminal elements and concluded that the incident constituted a regulatory offense.”

“Quebec and Canadian law are based on the principle that accidents are not punished under criminal law.”

Durocher explains to CityNews what it takes to lay charges.

“Having been for five years at the collision investigation unit, before you bring a case to a Crown prosecutor, you really have to have enough evidence that you can visit a Crown prosecutor that if they do go forward with the accusations that they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person had any type of criminal intent. So that’s probably why they went with a ticket.”

Abhiram’s father is left to question Canada’s legal system.

“Whenever I do a like small speed, speed thing, we pay $500 fine. And you do this to my son and you pay only $1,000 fine,” Narayanappa said.

The owner of Autobus Groupe Séguin, the company responsible for the driver and bus, said the driver is no longer with the company as of Feb. 4 — five days after the incident.

In an email to CityNews, Yannick Séguin said the company reinforced its student drop-off procedure following the incident, and equipped all its school buses with forward-facing cameras.

He also said every driver hired by Autobus Groupe Séguin undergoes a criminal background check, continuous driving record reviews, and in-class and on-the-road training.

“The events of January 29 deeply affected all of us, and our thoughts have been with the child and his family ever since,” Séguin wrote. “An accident involving a child is every school bus company’s worst fear.

“Every day, parents entrust us with their children. A single incident like this one is one too many.”

Abhiram received $1,700 in benefits from the SAAQ. He suffered multiple fractures to his right leg, a pelvic fracture, urethral damage, a rib fracture and liver damage.

“He has to be in blood thinners for life, the doctor said,” Narayanappa said. “He has a stent here which is blocked. We have to undergo maybe surgery in a few years and we have to continually monitor him.”

According to SAAQ spokesperson Simon-Pierre Poulin, the SAAQ operates under a no-fault system, meaning compensation is not based on who caused the accident. He says compensation can change as a person’s medical situation or damages evolve.

“Are we like victims? Are we like beggars?” said Narayanappa. “I pay taxes. I pay 30 per cent tax on my work. When she goes to work, she pays taxes. What we are going to get?”

Abhiram has been out of school since January. His family hopes he can return this coming January, nearly a year after the crash. His mother has had to stay home to care for him, while his father, who works as a chemist, has also had to take time away from work. The family also has a three-year-old son.

“This is a lot on a family,” the father said. “On top of that, I’m the only person who’s working. I have two kids in this province where everything is expensive these days.”

Abhiram, who now has a teacher who comes to homeschool him for an hour every day, says he’s excited to go back to school and see his friends.

The family is raising funds to help with his medical costs and any legal expenses.