Man pleads guilty to driving van into Alberta school, killing 11-year-old girl
ST. PAUL, Alta. – A man has pleaded guilty to criminal charges after his minivan plowed through the wall of a rural Alberta school and killed an 11-year-old girl.
Richard Edward Benson, who is 47, pleaded guilty earlier this month in St. Paul court to one count of criminal negligence causing death and two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
He has not yet been sentenced and is to appear again in court on Nov. 14.
Benson’s family said earlier that he had a history of seizures and was likely having an attack when he was behind the wheel last October.
The van smashed through a window of Racette Junior High School in St. Paul and dove into a lower-level Grade 6 classroom.
Three girls were pinned under the van and airlifted to hospital where one of them, Megan Wolitski, died the next day.
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