Ottawa bus crash kills three, injures 23

Friday, January 11, 2019 ~ OTTAWA. [Updates at 5:30 pm January 12, and January 13]

~ Summary by West Shore Voice News

A bus crash killed three people and injured 23 in Ottawa today January 11 during the in-town afternoon commute.  The bus number 8155 on Route 269 collided with an extension of a bus shelter at approximately 4:50 pm Eastern Time.

Two of the people killed had been passengers on the bus, and one was on the platform. Hospitals were reporting several of the injured as being in serious or critical condition. Some bus passengers were pinned in their seats and required extraction by first-responders.

In a news conference Friday evening, the city’s mayor said that all four major hospitals in Ottawa are handling the injured and that city flags were lowered to half mast.

Police and city transportation services will look at what happened. The Ministry of Ontario Transportation will inspect the bus and Transport Canada studies serious crash conditions.

Transport Safety Board has in the past apparently looked at further crash worthiness for the double-decker buses. One official today said new double-decker (two level) buses have bumpers and some video displays were upgraded, but otherwise there is “nothing to point to double-decker buses being a concern”, the official said.

There were multiple injuries on the bus and on the platform. Early reports said that most injuries occured to people who were on the upper right side of the bus. There would have been concussion and blunt trauma injuries.

The driver of the bus was arrested at the scene, which is not something that usually happens so immediately at a crash scene. But she was released without conditions later that evening.

The bus could have been holding up to 90 passengers and there were people at the platform, said officials.

UPDATE at 5:30 pm January 12:

• Paramedics finished their work at the scene around 5 pm Eastern on Friday evening, January 11.
• As police reconstruct the scene, people who were on the bus or on the platform at the time of the crash are again asked to come forward as witnesses.
• By 3:30 pm January 12, the bus involved in the crash was being towed away from the station. After that, nearly 24 hours after the fatal collision, police begin driving a similar bus up and down the Transitway near the Westboro Station as one way to determine what happened.

UPDATE January 13 morning:

• Not a lot of details have been released yet about the victims and injured. However, a GoFundMe page for one woman says she has had one leg amputated and is in a coma. The Canadian Armed Forces has revealed that some of it members suffered injuries in Friday’s crash.
• Bus driver in Friday’s crash is alleged to have been in another collision days before, as reported in the Ottawa Citizen. The driver was allegedly not cooperative with police on scene and apparently police felt she needed to be arrested in order to be properly detained and questioned. As at January 13, she has not been charged with any crime or offence and police maintain that they have no grounds to believe any offence was committed.
• Ottawa police collision investigators will reportedly look at what witnesses have already described as possible factors in the crash – sun producing glare in a driver’s field of vision, reports of black and regular ice on the transitway, the possibility of mechanical failures, and the speed of the bus.

UPDATE January 13 evening:

• Identification process is still underway, no names released.
• Ottawa Hospital reported Sunday it had the one patient in critical condition, six in serious condition, and four were stable. Later it said all patients previously in critical condition had been moved to serious condition.
• Ottawa police say they have positively identified the three deceased and have notified their families — police said they would not be publicly identifying them.
• An official book of condolences for victims of the Westboro bus tragedy will be available for the the public to sign at Ottawa City Hall beginning noon Monday January 14. The book will allow residents to convey their sympathies to those affected by the tragedy. It will remain open for signing at city hall until Sunday, Jan. 20.
• Although first indications were that two victims were on the bus and a third on the station platform, new information has surfaced and police are looking deeper.
• The Transitway and all stations reopened at 7:30 pm ET Sunday evening.