The mother of a 14-year-old student who died in a fatal bus crash outside his school broke down in tears Friday as she told reporters the woman responsible “torn our family apart.”
Cameron Millen was waiting with a group of other students outside Macarthur Anglican School in Cobbitty, Sydney, at 3pm on 15 February 2023, when he was fatally hit by a public bus.
The bus was driven by Penina Lopesi, 56, when it mounted the curb and struck the ninth-grade student.
The bus driver appeared in Campbelltown District Court on Friday to be sentenced after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and causing Cameron’s death in a designated waiting area.
The bus driver was sentenced to at least one year in prison, with a one-year non-parole period and three years’ driving ban. She will be eligible for parole in September 2025.
The court was told she had sped out of the bus layby with 31 students on board before the bus mounted the kerb.
In the critical 13 seconds that followed, the bus careened across the public area, collided with a tree and struck Cameron before crashing into a steel bollard.
Judge David Arnott SC noted that around 200 students were in the vicinity at the time of the crash, some of whom “were at risk of serious injury or death”.
Cameron Millen, 14, was hit and killed by a bus outside his school in Sydney last year.
Cameron’s mother, Michelle Millen, said the family was “mortified” by the footage shown of the crash.
CCTV footage from inside the bus showed the 56-year-old driver with her left hand on the steering wheel and her other hand loosely at her side as she drove away from the bus stop.
Judge Arnott said his “inattention” meant he failed to “maintain a proper gaze on the road ahead” and failed to “adequately steer the bus” around the crucial bend.
‘As the bus mounted the curb, she panicked and for the next 13 seconds, the only rational conclusion that can be drawn is that she mistakenly put her foot on the accelerator instead of the brake and so struggled in vain with the handbrake, with catastrophic consequences,’ he said.
During his sentencing hearing, Lopesi cried as he told the court he had tried to apply the handbrake as the bus swerved onto the sidewalk.
“I lifted him up but he came back down,” Lopesi explained.
‘I tried to use the foot brake but I didn’t realize I was pressing the accelerator.’
The court heard that no brake marks were found at the scene and an expert found no mechanical problem to blame for the incident.
Bus driver Penina Lopesi (above) was jailed for at least a year over the fatal crash
Ms Millen questioned why Lopesi was allowed to get behind the wheel of a bus in her statement to the court.
Lopesi accepted he had not honked his horn to warn the students as the bus sped towards them, telling the court he “panicked”.
Surveillance footage of the driver after the impact shows her covering her mouth with her hand before frantically shaking her head back and forth several times.
Students behind her can be seen panicking as they struggle to get off the bus, and Judge Arnott noted that some students tried to escape before the driver opened the doors.
The bus driver said she was “in shock” so she had not left her seat to help students on or off the bus.
The court heard that the 55-year-old woman had been behind the wheel of a bus in another accident two years earlier and had nine traffic violations on her record.
Judge Arnott described his driving record as “not good” but said he was a person of “previous good character” who had been described in glowing terms in character references submitted to the court.
He said Lopesi had been “visibly distressed” during the proceedings and accepted she was “deeply contrite and remorseful for her actions”.
Lopesi cried as he told the court he had tried to pull the handbrake as the bus swerved.
Ms Millen said the ruling “raised more questions than it answered” outside the courtroom.
The judge accepted that the bus driver had been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
Sentencing before a courtroom packed with Cameron’s family and friends, Judge Arnott acknowledged that “no prison sentence can bring back a loved one.”
He told the court he had given “significant weight” to the moving victim impact statements read by Cameron’s family, who are “absolutely devastated by his death”.
“Simply put, they are broken and forever changed,” Judge Arnott said.
Outside court, Cameron’s mother, Michelle Millen, said her family was “mortified” by what they saw on the “horrific” surveillance videos.
“This sentencing hearing has raised more questions than it answers,” he said.
“What remains unexplained is why. There was no mechanical failure and no medical episode.”
Ms Millen was seen crying outside the court after the sentencing hearing.
Ms Millen said her family “will not stop trying” to get answers after her family “was destroyed”.
Ms. Millen highlighted Lopesi’s driving record, which included violations for running red lights and driving with minors without seat belts.
“Given what we have learned, we want to know why he was allowed to be behind the wheel of a bus with children in his care and we want to know why our youngest son was killed,” she said.
‘We will not stop trying to get answers.
‘Mrs Lopesi destroyed our family and we will spend the rest of our lives trying to put it back together.’