Pinel requests more time to evaluate Laval bus driver charged in fatal daycare crash
The Gazette
2023-03-28
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Laval police secure the scene after an STL bus crashed into a daycare centre Feb. 8, 2023.
The Pinel Institute has requested more time to evaluate Pierre Ny St-Amand, the Laval bus driver facing several charges involving the bus crash that killed two children at a daycare in February.
The request from the hospital for the criminally insane was made during a hearing Tuesday morning at the Laval courthouse. A Quebec Court judge was informed that a 30-day evaluation requested on Feb. 24, to determine if St-Amand could be found not criminally responsible for what he is alleged to have done on Feb. 8, was not ready. The hospital requested a 30-day extension.
During his previous hearing, the court was informed that a mental health expert at Pinel who previously evaluated St-Amand, 52, found he was fit to stand trial .
St-Amand’s lawyer, Julien Lespèrance Hudon, agreed to have the case carried over to April 26.
St-Amand was arrested at a daycare in Laval’s Ste-Rose district after the bus he was driving crashed into it. Two children attending the daycare — Maëva David and Jacob Gauthier — were killed in the crash. Another six children were injured.
St-Amand is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He is also charged with the attempted murder of the occupants of the daycare on Terrasse Dufferin by driving the bus into it and six counts of assault on children who were born in 2018 and 2017.
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