Bus driven ‘recklessly’ before crash: passenger
A school bus carrying 34 children between the ages of six and 16 collided with a 10-wheel truck on the interchange ramp on Highway 640 East headed toward Highway 15 North in Boisbriand on Thursday.
The bus veered off the circular ramp and into a ditch about 10 feet off the road. It remained upright.
There were also 10 adults on board the school bus, the Sûreté du Québec said.
Those on board were campers and counsellors heading to the Y Country Camp, a sleepaway camp in Huberdeau, about 125 kilometres northwest of Montreal.
Initially, the bus was behind the truck, which was taking the exit in the correct lane, according to Matthew Ohayon, a camp counsellor at YCC who was on the bus when it crashed. He spoke to the Montreal Gazette from the waiting room at the St-Eustache Hospital.
Ohayon, who was sitting in the front seat of the bus on the righthand side, said the bus was going disturbingly fast, especially considering it was full of children.
“We’re on the ramp and it’s on a curve and I noticed that, even for a car, we’re going pretty fast,” Ohayon said. “He was already driving very recklessly — he almost took off his mirror.”
Once the bus was on the ramp, the driver stepped on the gas and hit the truck from behind, Ohayon said, adding that a witness who saw the accident from behind noticed an unusual amount of exhaust coming out of the bus.
“Right when I saw the windshield explode, I ducked for cover,” Ohayon said.
The glass on the side windows also broke.
“I don’t know what happened after that. It all went blank,” he said.
The bus skidded and stopped in a ditch.
Civilians stopped their cars and began helping the children out the back of the bus, Ohayon said.
Ambulances arrived and transported 10 people, mostly children, to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries, a spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec confirmed. Others involved in the collision were transported to a hospital on a Laval city bus.
Ohayon said one staff member told him her neck was feeling very stiff after the crash. She was taken away in a stretcher and a neck brace. But she was in stable condition and able to walk once Ohayon arrived at the hospital, he said.
One child had a cut knee, a couple of others had bitten their lips due to the impact, according to Ohayon.
“Parents looked very relieved because there really were no major injuries,” Ohayon said.
The kids would still be going to the camp later Thursday, he added. A school bus with a different driver was waiting for campers at the hospital. The camp director, who went to the hospital following the crash to meet with children and their families thanked Ohayon and the staff on board.
A greater investigation to determine whether the behaviour of one or both of the drivers may have been problematic is ongoing.