A mother has sensationally revealed her daughter was left on a bus owned and run by the same daycare company at the centre of the death of a three-year-old boy.
The boy boarded a minibus owned by Goodstart Early Learning on Tuesday morning and was supposed to be dropped off at a daycare, but his body was found in the vehicle parked outside Hambledon State School, Cairns, at about 3pm.
The exact circumstances of the horrific incident remain unclear, but it appears the child had been left in the minibus all day as temperatures reached 34C.
Lisa Easton said the tragedy brought back horrific memories.
The mother said her daughter Violet, now three, was left on a bus owned by the same company for more than an hour in January 2018 on the Gold Coast.
Ms Easton said if a worker hadn’t spotted Violet in the bus when they took the garbage out, she could have met the same fate.
She has started a petition calling for the business to be shut down if it doesn’t overhaul its safety procedures, which she claimed were inadequate.
‘To my knowledge at the time [Violet was enrolled] there was only ever one driver, at the most there were two adults on the bus,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
Lisa Easton’s daughter Violet (pictured together) was left on a Goodstart Early Learning bus for more than and hour in January 2018 on the Gold Coast
People have written cards and left flowers and teddy bears for the boy and his family
‘They would occasionally use a clipboard and check off names but that was mostly for drop off.’
She said the company told her it had changed its procedures following Violet’s ordeal.
‘They promised me they now had three staff on each bus that would cross check each other before one would do a final sweep. It was worded to me in a way that I believed this was across the board,’ she said.
‘I started the petition because when it happened to Violet I wanted to make sure to show they were incompetent and I wasn’t going to sit back. They need to have an overhaul or go completely. They’ve shown they can’t train staff.’
Ms Easton, whose daughter is unable to attend daycare and has developed anxieties since her ordeal, said she is shattered for the family of the boy.
‘In the end I could hug my daughter and get peace out of that. But this mother can’t,’ she said.
A toddler was found dead in the daycare minibus (pictured) outside a primary school in Edmonton, Queensland, on Tuesday
‘I want to tell the boy’s parents to stay strong as much as possible and to get support. There are no words – I mean what can you say?
‘I tried to make sure this never happened. I am so sorry.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Goodstart Early Learning for comment.
The daycare company has previously insisted it has strict safety procedures in place.
Ms Easton (pictured with Violet in 2018) started a petition to shut down the business after a three-year-old boy was found on a bus owned by the business in Cairns on Tuesday afternoon
But sources close to the centre told Daily Mail Australia staff were ‘ever-changing’ and that the ‘run down’ centre had ‘no consistency’.
It is also understood that protocol, which dictates a child must be signed in and out of the bus, may not have been followed – leaving the toddler to swelter for up to six hours on Tuesday.
Among a catalogue of potentially fatal errors, insiders said:
- Children are supposed to be strictly checked in and out of the minibus
- The minibus is understaffed with just one carer, who is also the driver
- If the child does not arrive at daycare, family should be immediately contacted
- Head checks are supposed to be done every 30 minutes, as well as eating records
- Yard checks must also be undertaken to ensure every youngster is accounted for
The boy was found in a bus outside Hambledon State School, just 1.7km from his daycare, Goodstart Early Learning, in Edmonton (pictured)
Head checks are supposed to be done every 30 minutes, with records taken of what youngsters eat and drink, which would have alerted staff that the toddler was missing.
It is not known if these procedures were not followed, but the young boy was eventually found by the ‘distraught’ driver at 3.15pm – having been picked up from his home at 9.15am.
This means the defenceless toddler could have been trapped in the bus for up to six hours, as temperatures in the area reached 34C.
Such blistering heat can quickly turn a stationary vehicle into a death trap.
His family are believed to be Aboriginal, and are being supported by Indigenous family liaison officers.
The driver was said to be in such a ‘distraught’ state that he was taken to hospital suffering from shock, and has not yet been able to speak to police.
It it understood tragedy struck when the little boy was left alone in the bus outside Hambledon State School in Edmonton after older children were dropped off.
But police insisted on Tuesday afternoon that the investigation was in its early stages, and that they didn’t know if the boy had been in the bus all day.
A source explained the toddler was often picked up by the bus in the mornings, alongside other daycare children and young school students, and should have been monitored.
‘The little boy was supposed to be at care all day,’ the source said.
‘He uses the bus service. The childcare also does before and after school care, hence it was at the school.
‘It appears after morning pick up and school run he was forgotten until the afternoon run.’
The centre was closed on Wednesday following the tragedy, with an ominous sign in its car park reading ‘do not leave babies and children in parked cars’.
The Goodstart Early Learning centre in Edmonton (pictured) was closed on Wednesday following the tragedy
A sign outside Goodstart Early Learning (pictured) in Edmonton advises staff and visitors to not leave children in parked cars
An insider explained that, as per procedure, the toddler should have been signed into the bus and then signed off again when he was safely at daycare.
If he was then not seen at daycare, it would be correct protocol for carers to contact his family and check his whereabouts.
‘A lot of procedure seems to not be followed,’ they explained.
‘It’s there for a reason. And if just one of those policies and procedures above had been followed, would it be different?
‘The centre is closed today, and that one already has a bad name. How would anyone want to leave their baby there now little own let them get on a bus?’
The five-room centre, which usually has around 12 members of staff, can cater for 70 children.
But it is understood that the centre wasn’t full at the time of the tragedy.
It comes as Julia Davison, the CEO of Goodstart Early Learning, admitted on Sunrise her team ‘don’t know what happened’.
Detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the child’s death (pictured) outside a primary school in Queensland
‘All of our 15,000 educators are devastated and shocked,’ she said.
‘It is every family’s worst nightmare that something might happen to their child and it is every educator’s worst nightmare something might happen to a child in their care.’
The source added that ongoing staffing changes at the centre made it less safe.
‘When the new Childs World Centres opened, it was a lot of competition and they lost a lot of families and staff, as you do,’ they said.
‘The staff that stayed were ever changing, new educators in the room all the time and no consistency.
Julia Davison, CEO of Goodstart Early Learning, called the incident ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’ (pictured) on Sunrise
‘And as you know, that’s never good for little kids being left.
‘It’s also a bit run down. When there’s a new educator all the time, it’s not nice to leave your babies there.’
The centre’s CEO, Ms Davison, said that it would now stop both its morning pickup and afternoon drop-off services,
‘We don’t know what happened, all we know is that something went badly wrong yesterday,’ she said.
‘We have decided that with effect from today, we will cease our pickup and drop-off service. That has been a very difficult decision for us to make.
Emergency services were called to the scene on Tuesday afternoon (pictured) after the boy’s body was found
‘We are going to see cease temporarily and we know that without our pickup and drop-off service, many children are not able to access high-quality early learning.
‘But we feel that we need to just pause for a few days whilst we think about whether there are other things we can do to improve the safety of our transfers.
‘We usually had lots of procedures and processes in and training in place anyway, but we want to look at what we can do to strengthen that. And we will no doubt have learnings from the investigation, but at this stage we don’t know what happened yesterday.’
She insisted the centre ‘always have an adequate number of staff on the bus’, and that there was a procedure for checking children off the list.
The incident is being investigated by police.
Children are seen arriving at Hambledon State School (pictured) on Wednesday, hours after the toddler was found dead nearby
‘It’s early days and a number of factors could be at play here and we’ll investigate all possibilities,’ Detective Inspector Jason Smith told Nine on Tuesday.
‘The death of any child is an awful thing which is why it’s so important for us to get to the bottom of this.’
In a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, Ms Davison said: ‘Goodstart Early Learning sends its deepest condolences to the family of a small boy who died in our care in Cairns yesterday.
Hambledon State School wrote on social media that it was postponing a scheduled parents’ meeting following the tragedy (pictured) outside its gates
‘It is a great responsibility to care for a child and each day tens of thousands of families entrust their precious children to us. It is not a responsibility we take lightly.
‘While we don’t yet understand the circumstances of yesterday’s tragedy, we will of course do everything in our power to assist the authorities with their investigation.
‘On behalf of every Goodstart centre across Australia and our 15,000 team members I want to extend our deepest condolences to the family who have suffered such a tragic loss.
‘We will of course offer them all possible assistance.’
The company is providing counselling for staff and families.
The boy was found in a minibus parked outside Hambledon State School (pictured) on Tuesday afternoon