Three die, 23 injured after bus hits Ottawa transit shelter
OTTAWA — Three people were killed and 23 injured when a double-decker city bus struck a transit shelter in Ottawa on Friday afternoon, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson says.
The driver of the bus was arrested at the scene, Chief Charles Bordeleau of the Ottawa police said at an evening news conference at Ottawa City Hall. He would not say why she was detained rather than submitting to questions voluntarily.
“Something led us to having to arrest the individual and take them to the station,” Bordeleau said.
The crash took place west of downtown at 3:50 p.m. EST, just as dusk was beginning to settle on the coldest day of the winter so far in the national capital. The bus had been headed to the Ottawa suburb of Kanata.
Two of the dead were passengers. The other person killed had been on the platform at Westboro station, a major stop on the city’s busway, Watson said.
The vehicle apparently jumped the curb as it approached the station and plowed along the platform, where the roof of a shelter carved deep into the vehicle’s second deck. The first seats on the upper level of the bus were crushed together.
During the emergency response, a dozen ambulances lined one side of the transit route, waiting to take injured people away.
One woman who could walk was helped off a bus by two first responders. Another was wheeled on a gurney in obvious distress, wailing loudly enough to be heard on an overpass above.
Neither Bordeleau nor Watson would speculate on why the bus had left the road. Despite mid-afternoon temperatures of about -15 C, it hadn’t snowed in Ottawa Friday and the busway is the top priority for the city’s snowplows, salters and sanders.
“We’re taking every necessary step to establish all of the facts and will co-operate fully with any investigation,” said John Manconi, the general manager of Ottawa’s transit service, OC Transpo.
Paramedics said 25 people were taken to hospital, suggesting one of the victims could not be revived at the scene and the other two died after arriving at hospital. Of those transported, 14 were listed in critical condition and 11 were in serious condition, paramedic chief Myles Cassidy told the news conference.
“Most of the serious injuries were on the upper-right side of the bus,” Bordeleau said. “I want to express my sorrow and condolences of the Ottawa police service and other emergency services.”
He said the upper deck of the bus was badly damaged in the crash, trapping several people inside.
The investigation will take a long time and prompted the closure of the busway and nearby roads for hours, Bordeleau said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford tweeted messages of support.
In 2013, another Ottawa doubledecker bus broke through a warning gate and collided with a Via Rail train in suburban Barrhaven, killing six people as the train sheared off the front of the vehicle.
In that case, an investigation found the cause was a combination of excessive speed, a difficult curve before the tracks and distracted driving.