Contractor was test-driving Transpo bus when it flipped

Transit heads are investigating why a routine test drive went sideways this week when a driver lost control of an OC Transpo bus, which ended up flipped in a ditch.

Emergency services responded to the bus crash Monday morning on Russell Road near Ramsayville Road.

Only the driver was on the conventional 40-foot bus, since it was apparently out on a test run during maintenance. The bus was temporarily in the possession of Eastway, a company contracted to do the work.

The bus ended up resting on its right side in the grassy ditch off a soft bend in Russell, just before the stop sign at Ramsayville. The driver wasn’t hurt. Troy Charter, Transpo’s director of transit operations, said the department is looking into what caused the crash.

What Transpo knows so far is that the bus was out for maintenance and no Transpo staff were involved in the crash.

“Just like our mechanics, when they do repairs on a vehicle they have to take it out on a test drive,” Charter said. “We have to investigate what actually happened.”

Transpo hasn’t calculated the cost of any damage, but it will be the contractor’s responsibility to pay for anything that’s broken.

“They’ll have to be on the hook for that themselves,” Charter said.

Charter explained that, although it tries to keep its work in-house, Transpo uses external contractors for some specialized work or maintenance work during peak periods.

The contractor has a maintenance facility not far from the crash site.

Eastway should be no stranger to the Transpo fleet. The two organizations did plenty of maintenance related business in 2016, according to records of Transpo purchase orders.

Fortunately, Eastway specializes in collision repair.

The Citizen left messages with Eastway on Wednesday to find out what happened on the road Monday. No one returned the calls.

Just like our mechanics, when they do repairs on a vehicle they have to take it out on a test drive. We have to investigate what actually happened.