Bus driver jailed after 14-year-old boy Cameron Millen killed outside school

The mother of a 14-year-old schoolboy killed in a fatal bus crash outside his school broke down in tears on Friday as she told media the woman responsible “blew our family apart”. Cameron Millen had been waiting with a group of other students outside Macarthur Anglican School in Cobbitty at 3pm on February 15, 2023, when he was fatally struck by a public bus. The bus was being driven by Penina Lopesi, 56, when it mounted the kerb and ploughed into the Year Nine student. The bus driver faced Campbelltown District Court on Friday to be sentenced after pleading guilty to driving dangerously and causing Cameron’s death in a designated waiting zone. The bus driver was sentenced to at least one year behind bars with a one year non parole period, and disqualified from driving for three years. She will be eligible for parole in September 2025. The court was told she had accelerated out of the bus bay with 31 students on board before the bus mounted the footpath. In the critical 13 seconds that followed, the bus careened across the public area, hit a tree and ran over Cameron before smashing into a steel bollard. Judge David Arnott SC noted an estimated 200 students were in the vicinity at the time of the crash, some of whom “were put in danger of being seriously injured or killed”. CCTV footage from inside the bus showed the 56-year-old driver with her left hand on the steering wheel and the other hand loose at her side as she drove away from the bus stop. Judge Arnott said her “inattention” meant she failed to “keep a proper look out for the road ahead” and failed to “properly steer the bus” around the crucial sweeping turn. “When the bus mounted the kerb, she panicked and during the next 13 seconds, the only rational conclusion to be drawn is that she mistakenly put her foot on the accelerator instead of the foot brake and for this reason grappled to no avail with the hand brake, resulting in catastrophic consequences,” he determined. During her sentencing hearing, Lopesi cried as she told the court she had tried to pull the handbrake as the bus was swerving over the footpath. “I pulled it up but it went back down,” Lopesi explained. “I tried to use the foot brake but I wasn’t aware it was the accelerator I was pushing on.” The court heard no brake marks were found at the scene, and an expert had found no mechanical issue to blame for the incident. Lopesi agreed she hadn’t sounded the horn to warn students as the bus sped towards them, telling the court she “panicked”. Surveillance footage of the driver after the impact shows her holding her hand over her mouth before frantically shaking her head back and forth multiple times. The students behind her can be seen panicking as they scramble to get off the bus, with Judge Arnott noting some students tried to break out before the driver opened the doors. The bus driver said she was “in shock”, which was why she hadn’t left her seat to help the students inside or outside the bus. The court was told the 55-year-old had been behind the wheel of a bus during another crash two years earlier and she had nine traffic infringements on her record. Judge Arnott described her driving record as “not good” but said she was a person of “prior good character” who had been described in glowing terms in character references tendered to the court. He said Lopesi had been “visibly distressed” during the proceedings and accepted she was “deeply contrite and remorseful for her actions”. The judge accepted the bus driver has been diagnosed with complex post traumatic stress disorder. In handing down the sentence before a courtroom packed with Cameron’s family and friends, Judge Arnott acknowledged that “no jail term can return a loved one”. He told the court he had placed “significant weight” on the touching victim impact statements read out by Cameron’s family, who are “absolutely devastated by his death”. “Put simply, they are shattered and changed forever,” Judge Arnott said. Outside court, Cameron’s mother Michelle Millen said his family were “mortified” by what they saw in the “horrific” surveillance videos. “This sentencing hearing has raised more questions than it provided answers,” she said. “What remains unexplained is why. There was no mechanical failure, there was no medical episode.” Ms Millen pointed to Lopesi’s driving record, which included infringements for driving through red lights and driving with unrestrained minors. “Given what we have learned, we want to know why she was allowed behind the wheel of a bus with children in her care and we want to know why our youngest son was killed,” she said. “We won’t stop trying to get answers.” “Mrs Lopesi blew our family apart and we will spend the rest of our lives trying to pick up the pieces.”