It’s been nearly two months since a tragic bus crash in West Vancouver left a four-year-old boy dead and his mother severely injured.
The boy’s father, Clineu Machado, tells CityNews exclusively that given the circumstances of her condition, his wife still doesn’t know their little boy is gone. He says she remains in the hospital, not fully awake, and is awaiting at least another dozen surgeries.
He adds that the pair have yet to make or finalize any sort of funeral plans for little Leonardo. However, he has an idea.
“I have just one request and this is more important to me than money and justice and everything, it’s very simple. I want my son to finish that trip. That trip was cut short that day. He loved buses, he loved travelling.”
On May 28, a public transit bus jumped the curb in Horseshoe Bay and struck Leonardo and his mother. The boy died at the scene.
“They can bring his casket to Horseshoe Bay, he can board the bus, the bus can bring him to the cathedral and the bus bring him to the cemetery. There is a bus stop. His gravesite is right behind the bus stop. You can bring the casket over the fence. I think that could be beautiful.”
The plan is to keep their son in B.C. until he’s laid to rest permanently in the family’s native Brazil.
The investigation into what happened that day is ongoing. To date, no one has been arrested or charged and no agency has taken responsibility for what happened.
“We cannot bring Leonardo back or the health of my wife. I think she’s going to survive. I think she’s going to cope with this tragedy. We’re going to rebuild our life. But society has an opportunity to learn from tragedies. The life of my son has to be more meaningful. It has to contribute for something.”
Machado has a lawyer and he wants more information about the crash to be made public so people and officials can learn from it to ensure an incident like this never happens again.
“I don’t want see this [bus] driver pay for everything, even if it’s their own fault, but society needs to learn from this educational process. If the trip doors of the bus are closed, the bus can move. If the trip doors are open, the bus doesn’t move. If the front doors are open, the bus should move eight to 10 feet and stop automatically. But the bus drove 60 feet — the whole bus going on top of the sidewalk without braking. My guess is that’s a mechanical failure, maybe combined with a human failure and police need to show this video immediately.”
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The day of the crash, there was a nearby community event taking place, which was later cancelled, but Machado says things could have been so much worse if more people had been on the sidewalk.
“If you have 20 people on the corner, do you understand how many people could have died?”
Machado says their son was in his stroller and wasn’t aware of what happened before his final moments. Although nothing will replace his son, he says the outpouring of support from the public has helped.
“In Vancouver, friends they reached out and they support me. They replace ICBC and they replace TransLink, and they replace the police.”
He’s appealing to any member of the public who may have information about the crash to come forward to him, even if it’s anonymously.
“Just tell me if the doors were open or not… and I think police should be fast to give answers.”
A GoFundMe for the family remains open with more than $170,000 having been raised to date.
