A five-year-old Montreal girl is dead after a city bus ran over her Saturday evening.
The accident happened outside the Honor-Beaugrand metro station just before 6 p.m. The bus was turning off Sherbrooke Street into a reserved parking lot when it struck the girl. She was rushed to the hospital and declared dead soon after.
Her parents and another child were with her at the time but didn't suffer any injuries. However, they were admitted to hospital for shock.
The bus driver and several people who witnessed the accident were also taken to hospital and also treated for shock.
Tom Mouhteros of the bus driver's union said the driver in this case had been on the job for a year.
"We always say it's an accident. You know, no one goes out there looking to hurt someone. It's just a tragic, tragic accident. I can't imagine what the family feels right now," he told the CBC's Catherine Cullen.
One bus driver told CBC News the area is dangerous.
"Sometimes I'm ready to go and suddenly there is a customer coming up on the other side, rushing not to miss the bus," he said in French to CBC News.
However, Ãrick Abraham, a road safety expert at Ãcole Polytechnique de Montreal, said the layout of the intersection did not look problematic.
"There is, I don't know, how many places like this around Montreal and other cities. And do we have an accident every day at these kind of intersections? I don't think so," he told CBC News.
Police are investigating the incident and plan to interview the driver in the coming days.
The Montreal Transit Commission said a preliminary investigation is underway.
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