Children from Yvelines thrown onto the sidewalk by a bus driver

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“Sir, you are mistaken, this is not our school.” These are the words of children aged 6 to 10 who attend school in Villepreux (Yvelines). This Monday, September 16, 2024, like every morning, they were on the bus that was to take them from the Val-Joyeux district to theMarie-Curie Elementary Schoolin the city center.

Things didn’t go as planned. “The bus stopped in front of the Leon Blum College and the driver told the children to get out, says Aurélie, a mother. The children told him that he was not in the right place, but he would not listen.

Thirteen children aged 6 to 10 completely lost

There were thirteen children in the vehicle. They ended up on the sidewalk, without knowing where to go.

“They asked a lady who was walking her dog to help them. She took out her phone to see the route, because she didn’t know where the school was.”

Fortunately for the children, a facilitator from the school’s leisure centre, who was passing by, took charge of them and took them safely to the Curie school, located approximately 800 meters further away.

The line manager comes to reassure parents and children

“It’s not the first time there have been problems on this line,” recalls Blandine, another mother. “But in general, the driver listens to the children if they tell him he’s made a mistake. Here, he just told them: this is my stop. His other suggestion was to take them to high school! »

This Tuesday, September 17, 2024, Stavo, the line manager, dispatched a new driver as well as a manager, to try to reassure parents and children. A “good reaction,” according to Aurélie.

“I thought I was going to die”

“If I listened to myself, I would take my daughter off the bus. But I don’t want to deprive her of this ride with her friends. My daughter still told me: I thought I was going to die when we were outside. She had very scared“, confides Aurélie. “If they cannot ensure this safe transport for the children, they might as well not do it,” adds Blandine.

Revenge of a fired driver

According to Jean-Baptiste Hamonic, mayor of Villepreux and vice-president of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines urban area in charge of transport, the driver in question acted in this way to get revenge. “We suffered a act of sabotageof the driver, informs the elected official. He was fired, but he still had a few days to do.

A behavior that the mayor of Villepreux considers “unacceptable”. He demanded that the transport company send a letter of apology to the parents of the students concerned. “It is a isolated casethe result of a person’s behavior,” however qualifies Jean-Baptiste Hamonic.

The chosen one also sees in this episode, in the background, others recurring problems: “Transport companies are having difficulty recruiting. As a result, they are using temporary workers. We sometimes encounter inappropriate behavior, such as not respecting the shutdown of engines.”

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