Video: Witnesses offer more insight into how the deadly Ottawa bus crash unfolded. Mike Le Couteur reports.
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) have recovered the data recorders from the Ottawa city bus and Via Rail train involved in Wednesday’s fatal crash.
A TSB spokeswoman said the agency will need help with the recorder from the double-decker OC Transpo bus, since is doesn’t normally deal with accidents involving buses.
Six people, including OC Transpo bus driver Dave Woodard, were killed when bus 76 plowed past a flashing signal barrier into Via Train 51 on the Ottawa-Toronto corridor.
On Thursday afternoon, Ottawa Police publicly identified all of the victims.
READ MORE: Ottawa Police identify victims in Ottawa bus crash
Passengers aboard the bus said they screamed at Woodard to stop moments before the crash. Witnesses said Woodard didn’t stop, despite the barrier.
TSB officials said it could take months to determine why the city bus drove through a lowered safety barrier at the rail crossing.
The TSB said Wednesday that crossing accidents have been a concern of the agency for a long time, adding that between 2003 and 2012 there were 2,162 crossing accidents on Canada’s federally-regulated railways.
Wednesday’s crash is the largest fatality involving a bus and train in Ottawa.
“Boom! It went into the train like that,” said Pascal Lolgis. “He didn’t stop. He must have lost his brakes. Or he had an … attack or whatever.
“He just didn’t stop. He just keep going like that. Then he [got] hit.”
More than 30 people were rushed to hospital, including eight who were listed in critical condition. As of Thursday morning, four remained in hospital.
“I heard someone yelling so I looked up from my phone and you could see the train coming,” said a young woman who wished to remain anonymous. She was sitting on the second level of the bus at the time of the crash.
She said the impact ripped off the first two rows of seats in front of her; the train then derailed further down the tracks.
“A lot of people started panicking… I went downstairs hoping that the first aid kit would still be behind the bus driver but it wasn’t there,” she said.
The crash happened just east of Fallowfield train station near Woodroffe Ave., in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven at 8:48 a.m. EDT.
The train tracks in the area cross both a major city street and a transit line reserved for buses only. The bus was on a dedicated transit line that runs parallel to a busy commuter artery, about 10 kilometres west of Parliament Hill.
In a late evening press release the Department of Transportation said the city of Ottawa decided against an Infrastructure Canada funded improvement to the grade crossing in 2005.
A total of $40 million was set aside from all levels of government to build an underpass, however the soil proved challenging and would have inflated the costs dramatically, so the plan was shelved.
READ MORE: Safety plans for Ottawa rail crossing were shelved as area’s population grew
*With files from Global News’ Irene Ogrodnik, Laura Stone and the Canadian Press
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