Ottawa bus driver faces 38 charges in winter crash
Police said the “very complex” investigation was made more difficult by the frigid weather. Double-decker vehicle smashed transit shelter, killing three people
Two-hundred and twenty-four days after three people died when a double-decker commuter bus slammed into an Ottawa transit station, the woman who was behind the wheel has been charged in their deaths, as well as for injuring 35 others.
Aissatou Diallo, 42, was charged Friday with three counts of dangerous driving causing death and 35 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, interim Ottawa police Chief Steve Bell told a news conference. Diallo surrendered to police before being released in anticipation of a hearing Sept. 17. “The determination that we’ve made, in conjunction with the Crown attorney’s office, is that the actions of the driver that day did meet a criminal threshold,” Bell said.
He would not elaborate on the reasons for the charges, saying that will come out during the court proceedings. Bruce Thomlinson, Judy Booth and Anja Van Beek, all civil servants working for the federal government, died in the crash.
The double-decker transit bus was travelling to Kanata’s suburban Bridlewood neighbourhood from downtown Ottawa when it hopped a curb and struck the Westboro transit shelter at about 3:50 p.m., just as rush hour began. It plowed along a station platform and into the overhanging roof of the transit shelter, crushing several seats — and passengers — on the towering vehicle’s upper deck.
Police, firefighters and paramedics were on the scene for hours in what Bell described as “a very tragic and complex and difficult situation on probably what was the coldest night of the year, in very adverse conditions.”
Some of the family members of the victims spoke up earlier this summer to complain about the lack of answers about how the crash happened, and radio silence from the city and police. Bell said Friday it was “a very complex” investigation that was made more difficult by the chaotic scene and the frigid weather. It was about -15 C when the bus crashed and the temperatures plunged below -20 C overnight.
But Bell said the investigators were thorough, dedicated and constantly aware of how traumatic the crash was for the families, the passengers and the city as a whole.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who was spending most of Friday riding city buses and trains showing off the city’s new lightrail system, said in a statement the crash was a “traumatic” experience for the city.