15 November 2023 , 16:38
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The heartbroken mum of a two-year-old boy who died after he was reportedly "forgotten about" and left in a school minibus for eight hours in scorching 37C heat is now demanding "justice".
Kaliane Rodrigues says her son Apollo Gabriel Rodrigues was crying as he boarded the vehicle on the morning school run because he ‘didn’t want to go’ that day. He was the only one of the kids who remained on the minibus after he was allegedly forgotten about by the driver and his wife who works as a monitor.
The 45-year-old driver, named locally as Flavio Robson Benes, discovered the child unconscious on a back seat of the vehicle about 4pm yesterday (November 14) and rushed him to hospital but he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. He and his partner - named as 44-year-old Luciana Coelho Graft - have been questioned by police as part of an ongoing homicide investigation ahead of the youngster’s funeral.
The kid was trapped in this minibus in blistering heat (Newsflash)The tragedy unfolded in an area called Villa Maria in the northern part of the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo. The minibus was part of a free school transport scheme operated by the city council.
Devastated Kaliane said: “Whenever I returned home, my boy was always there. Yesterday he wasn’t and I’m never going to see my son again. It’s very difficult to get my head round the idea that I left my child on a school bus thinking he’d be safe and went to work. I want justice. All I want is for justice to be done.”
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Emergency services raced to the scene but there was little they could do (Newsflash)The youngster’s grandmother Luzinete Rodrigues dos Santos added: “The minibus was left in a parking lot in stifling heat. The driver only realised my grandson was still in the back when it was time to return the children to their families. Whoever takes care of children must have maximum responsibility. My daughter wants justice.”
The couple at the centre of the drama have reportedly told police investigators they picked up Apollo from his home around 7am yesterday morning to take him to his creche. Brazil has been suffering an extreme heatwave in the past few days and yesterday’s average day-time temperature in Sao Paulo reached around 37 degrees Celsius which is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.