Mayor Wu reacts to new developments in school bus crash that killed a 5-year-old

BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu says an investigation is ongoing into the school bus driver who struck and killed a 5-year-old boy in Hyde Park last month.

“There are protocols and this is a case where it looks like the responsibilities and obligations of the vendor were not held up,” Mayor Wu said Thursday night.

Boston Public Schools contracts their drivers through a company called “Transdev”, which hires and oversees the licensing and training for drivers.

Following the deadly accident, Transdev learned the driver had an expired school bus certificate even though he had all of the qualifications to renew it.

“As I understand it, the hours of that education had been done but the paperwork had not been done,” said Mayor Wu.

According to Boston Public Schools:

• The driver’s name is Jean Charles.
• He was hired by Transdev in May 2023.
• Charles was immediately placed on leave following the fatal accident in April.
• Charles was supposed to have a termination hearing on Wednesday, but resigned beforehand.

Charles was driving the school bus on Washington Street when police say he hit and killed Lens Arthur Joseph as he was heading home from school.

“There are no words for how devastating this is for this family and also for the larger community so we need to make sure we get to the bottom of everything that happened so that it will never ever happen again," Mayor Wu said.

Boston Public Schools says it’s now conducting an “after action review” with Transdev and they have already added safety leadership to daily operations.

Transdev says it brought additional safety staff to Boston and they’re accelerating refresher training for all drivers on pickup, drop off, and accident protocols.

The Suffolk County District Attorney and Boston Police continue to investigate the deadly crash and at this time, Charles has not been criminally charged.

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