Driver, four passengers confirmed dead as OC Transpo bus, Via train collide
The collision of a VIA Rail train and a double-decker city bus at a level crossing in Ottawa has resulted in multiple fatalities and left many more injured.
OTTAWA
— Five have been confirmed dead after a northbound double-decker OC
Transpo bus and a Via Rail train collided near the Fallowfield station
in Barrhaven Wednesday morning.
Police say the fatalities included the bus driver and four passengers.
There were multiple injuries as well. Seven patients were rushed to the Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital, three of them critically injured. Another three injured people were routed to the Queensway Carleton Hospital.
Robert Kurtenbach was on the top level of the bus on his way to work downtown.
He said the bus had gone about half a kilometre from the Transitway station when suddenly he was aware a train was right in front of the bus.
“The bus didn’t appear to slow down,” he said, and the front end slammed hard into the side of the train.
People screamed, and he was thrown forward and twisted his leg, but feels he is lucky not to have been hurt worse.
Those at the front were badly hurt, said the badly-shaken Kurtenbach who was waiting for his daughter to take him home.
“I could see bodies lying there,” inside the bus. He couldn’t estimate the number who seemed badly injured, but it was more than two or three. He couldn’t see the driver.
He said the crash ripped up the front of the bus badly.
The bus was Via Rail train 51 from Montreal, which had just left the Ottawa station and was pulling into Fallowfield station.
All trains in the east-west rail corridor have been cancelled.
Investigators with the Transportation Safety Board are en route to the scene and had also dispatched a spokesperson to meet with media.
Via Rail said it would provide comment later Wednesday morning and the city’s Emergency Operations Centre has been activated.
Woodroffe Avenue has been closed between Fallowfield and Hunt Club roads. Ottawa police are on the scene directing traffic.
At Ottawa City Hall, an early-morning transit commission meeting was cancelled.
“It’s bad. It’s really bad,” said Coun. Diane Deans.
In the early 2000s, the city had a plan to build an underpass for Woodroffe Avenue and then yet-to-be-built Transitway next to it, to separate traffic from the trains.
The $40-million project, whose cost was to be split among the city, provincial and federal governments, was put on hold in 2003 when it turned out that an unusual kind of rock in the area let water flow too freely into the construction trench.
The problem was solvable, city officials said at the time, but it would have cost more money; city council would have had to vote to spend it in 2004 and the other governments would have to be asked to kick in, too.
In 2002, then-mayor Bob Chiarelli described the intersection of tracks and road as “a very, very severe public safety issue.”
Mayor Jim Watson tweeted: “My thoughts are with the victims of this accident. Please pray for those affected and for our first responders dealing with this tragedy.”
At a transit announcement in Toronto on Wednesday morning, Premier Kathleen Wynne took a moment to address what she called the “tragedy in Ottawa.”
Police say the fatalities included the bus driver and four passengers.
There were multiple injuries as well. Seven patients were rushed to the Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital, three of them critically injured. Another three injured people were routed to the Queensway Carleton Hospital.
Robert Kurtenbach was on the top level of the bus on his way to work downtown.
He said the bus had gone about half a kilometre from the Transitway station when suddenly he was aware a train was right in front of the bus.
“The bus didn’t appear to slow down,” he said, and the front end slammed hard into the side of the train.
People screamed, and he was thrown forward and twisted his leg, but feels he is lucky not to have been hurt worse.
Those at the front were badly hurt, said the badly-shaken Kurtenbach who was waiting for his daughter to take him home.
“I could see bodies lying there,” inside the bus. He couldn’t estimate the number who seemed badly injured, but it was more than two or three. He couldn’t see the driver.
He said the crash ripped up the front of the bus badly.
The bus was Via Rail train 51 from Montreal, which had just left the Ottawa station and was pulling into Fallowfield station.
All trains in the east-west rail corridor have been cancelled.
Investigators with the Transportation Safety Board are en route to the scene and had also dispatched a spokesperson to meet with media.
Via Rail said it would provide comment later Wednesday morning and the city’s Emergency Operations Centre has been activated.
Woodroffe Avenue has been closed between Fallowfield and Hunt Club roads. Ottawa police are on the scene directing traffic.
At Ottawa City Hall, an early-morning transit commission meeting was cancelled.
“It’s bad. It’s really bad,” said Coun. Diane Deans.
In the early 2000s, the city had a plan to build an underpass for Woodroffe Avenue and then yet-to-be-built Transitway next to it, to separate traffic from the trains.
The $40-million project, whose cost was to be split among the city, provincial and federal governments, was put on hold in 2003 when it turned out that an unusual kind of rock in the area let water flow too freely into the construction trench.
The problem was solvable, city officials said at the time, but it would have cost more money; city council would have had to vote to spend it in 2004 and the other governments would have to be asked to kick in, too.
In 2002, then-mayor Bob Chiarelli described the intersection of tracks and road as “a very, very severe public safety issue.”
Mayor Jim Watson tweeted: “My thoughts are with the victims of this accident. Please pray for those affected and for our first responders dealing with this tragedy.”
At a transit announcement in Toronto on Wednesday morning, Premier Kathleen Wynne took a moment to address what she called the “tragedy in Ottawa.”
“My heart
goes out to the all the individuals and families who are affected and I
want to thank first responders for being on the scene,” she said.
“The province will be in constant contact to help assist the City of Ottawa or the federal government if that’s necessary.”
With files from Andrew Seymour, Shaamini Yogaretnam and Liz Payne
“The province will be in constant contact to help assist the City of Ottawa or the federal government if that’s necessary.”
With files from Andrew Seymour, Shaamini Yogaretnam and Liz Payne
Labels: Ottawa
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