Bus rolls onto foot of woman crossing the road
A 26-year-old Hunt Club woman struck by a city bus on Saturday night was in a bed in a recovery room at the Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus on Sunday following surgery on her left foot, livid that no OC Transpo representative had called to check on her by that point.
Leila Giama, a Carleton University student and an Elizabeth Fry Society employee, had stepped off the No. 92 bus in front of her house at Uplands and Paul Anka drives at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday and was crossing Paul Anka when the bus turned right and struck her.
Giama said another pedestrian was ahead of her in the intersection and they had the right of way.
“Whenever people get off that bus, the bus waits for people to cross the street. So I started crossing the street, and the next thing I know, I’m underneath the bus.”
According to Giama, the middle tires of the bus were atop her left foot when the vehicle stopped. “The bus driver got off the bus and said, ‘I didn’t see you, I didn’t see you,’ and I started yelling, ‘I’m still under the bus. I’m still under the bus.’
“It was pure agony,” she said. “A bus is extremely heavy.”
A statement released Sunday by OC Transpo’s transit operations director, Troy Charter, offered little beyond confirmation “that an incident involving contact between a pedestrian and a bus occurred last evening. An investigation is underway.”
Giama had surgery Sunday morning, after which hospital officials told her they couldn’t recover the skin on top of her foot. She was also told she’d be on crutches for between six and eight weeks.
“Thankfully my toes are moving,” she said. “They told me I was very lucky.
“But what I find really appalling is that nobody from OC Transpo has contacted me, at all, to see if I’m OK. I won’t be going to work or school, and I can’t work.”