‘JUST LIKE AN EARTHQUAKE’
Survivors recount bus crash horror
It happened in a matter of seconds. All was normal, and then it was “like an earthquake.”
Survivors of Monday ’s bus crash near Prescott could not explain what went wrong as they struggled to piece together what happened in a mere moment that afternoon.
Ontario Provincial Police said a Union Tour Express bus crashed into a rocky embankment on the side of the westbound Highway 401 at 2:30 p.m. Monday, just west of Prescott. The bus was carrying 37 tourists, all from China.
The collision left dozens injured, some critically, and one of the victims, a 54-year-old man, later died of his injuries.
“The bus hit the wall and all the passengers on the very right were injured,” said Lu Renlie, from Ningbo, speaking through a local interpreter. “I was in the middle.”
Lu, 65, who was part of a group of passengers staying at Brockville’s Super 8 motel, had a bandage on his head after requiring seven stitches from the collision.
The retired factory worker is part of a group of three people from Ningbo, including a former colleague and that colleague’s friend (the latter was clinging to life late Tuesday after suffering a head injury).
Lu does not know what caused the tour bus to end up in the ditch; it all happened so quickly. He remembers the rocky embankment as a wall.
“It felt like the wall hit the bus,” said Lu. The vehicle did not roll, but remained upright throughout, he said. “Before the accident everything was normal. The road conditions were good,” he said.
Then suddenly, the driver lost control, all of it happening within two or three seconds, he added.
Lu Yuxian, who is not related to Lu Renlie, was looking at her cellphone when the collision happened.
“I didn’t notice anything. It was just like an earthquake. It just suddenly happened,” she said, also speaking through a Mandarin interpreter.
Lu Yuxian was sitting in the third row from the front, but not next to the window. She was taken to hospital in Ottawa for examination but came through the crash un- scathed. About a dozen passengers from the ill-fated tour bus arrived at the Brockville motel on Monday night, said the motel’s owner, Nishan De Silva. He first saw them the following morning.
“I see people are walking in with blood on their T-shirts and their jackets with blood,” said De Silva.
He said he called around for help, with his main concern being getting them lunch.
Six more people arrived on Tuesday.
“More people are coming in today,” De Silva added Wednesday. He believes the passengers are all gathering in Brockville to prepare to leave.
The passengers gathered in a common area at the motel Tuesday night while a Mandarin-speaking Ontario Provincial Police officer interviewed them individually.
As news of the collision first spread Monday afternoon, members of the area’s small ChineseCanadian community mobilized.
“We worked like a community ... just to see if there was any way we could help,” said Nathan Bi, who provided translation along with his wife, Sydney Lee.
Bi, who works at Fulford Academy, a private school in Brockville for international students, said the local Red Cross put out a call for translators.
Despite the shock of the event, the mood at the motel was relatively positive, as local Mandarin speakers socialized with their unexpected guests.
Red Cross volunteer Laura Tobin was amazed at the response of the local Chinese community.
Tobin was asked to be on standby in the immediate aftermath of the collision, and later told to help pick up a group of passengers arriving in Brockville.
Knowing that language was going to be a barrier, she called her friend, Ping Wu.
“The Chinese community quickly communicated, rallied and showed up at the Super 8 Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m., ready to help,” Tobin recalled.
The local helpers numbered about a dozen, from Brockville and Prescott, she said.
They brought food, friendliness and a welcome touch of cultural familiarity to a group of people traumatized far from home.
There were other small gestures of kindness. De Silva’s son, Shey, told his classmates at J.L. Jordan Catholic School in Brockville about the situation and they drew a poster of a bus expressing sympathy with the passengers.
Usually when the Red Cross helps victims of an unfortunate incident, the people at least come from this community, noted Tobin.
“These folks don’t even really know where Brockville is, let alone what is available to them.”
Lu Renlie said the passengers are grateful for the help and he appreciated the thoroughness of the care he received at the hospital.
The group was awaiting news of the passengers still in hospital before deciding what to do next.
Lu Renlie’s family in China, at least, has been made aware that he is OK. And the ordeal would not deter him from visiting Canada again. “It’s not Canada’s fault,” he said. The crash forced the closure of all westbound lanes, from Edward Street to Maitland Road, as air and ground ambulances ferried the most seriously injured to hospitals across the region. Those lanes reopened late Monday evening, OPP said.
It felt like the wall hit the bus. Before the accident everything was normal. The road conditions were good.