The number of collisions involving GO Transit buses has increased roughly 20 per cent compared to three years ago.
Metrolinx, the provincial agency that oversees GO Transit, recorded 897 collisions involving GO buses between April 2014 and March 2017. Of those, 417 or 46.5 per cent were ruled “preventable,” defined by Metrolinx as the driver failing to do everything reasonable to prevent the collision.
Spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins told AM640’s Tasha Kheiriddin Show on Friday that the preventable collisions are often very minor in nature.
“It might be a mirror nick while the bus driver is navigating those big double-deckers in our parking garage or something, or a bumper scrape.”
There have been two fatalities in GO Transit’s 50-year history, including a collision in February where a 32-year-old woman was fatally struck by a bus at Toronto’s Union Station. Officials continue to investigate the circumstances of the collision.
The second fatal crash was deemed non-preventable when a 56-year-old woman was ejected and trapped beneath a GO bus in a single-vehicle rollover on Highway 407 in 2015.
There were 313 collisions involving GO buses in the last fiscal year, representing about a 20 per cent increase compared to the 261 collisions reported from 2014-2015.
Aikins says a five per cent jump in GO bus service played a part in the overall increase in collisions.
“There were more drivers, more buses, more kilometres driven. So, proportionately it will go up,” Aikins told AM640.
The transit agency has over 500 buses and 900 drivers that travel roughly 50 million kilometres a year throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area.