Vigil held as 6 dead in Ottawa bus-train crash

(Update)

A vigil for the six victims in Wednesday’s deadly train and bus crash in Ottawa was held Wednesday evening at the station near the scene of the tragedy. The question on everyone’s minds at the vigil was why? Why did a veteran bus driver drive his bus into the side of a train at a level crossing. We may never know. But the incident set off a series of calls to 911 as it was obvious right away how serious the situation was:

“We have a double-decker bus, front-end of the bus has significant damage, multiple patients on the ground. I will be Transaway command. Update to follow. Update this to a mass casualty.”

But if you were at the scene, you didn’t need to hear a 911 call to understand how serious the crash was. Police, fire and paramedics were all over the area. Yellow tape was up and Transportation Safety Board inspectors were among the first responders.

Our Sean Leathong is at the scene and he has this report.

Candles line line the platform, parents comfort children, as more than 200 coworkers and friends try to make sense of what seems senseless

Dawn Boivin, driver: “You never want to send somebody an have them never come home, never.”

But 6 people on board the bus yesterday morning aren’t coming home. Included is the bus driver 45 year old Dave Woodard, a nearly 10 year driver with a good record, both for safety and as a friend.

Rob, Fellow Driver: “The last time I spoke with him it was a great conversation and I remember we ended up sharing a laugh.”

Coworkers say Woodard was married with 2 children, an that yesterday was his wife’s birthday. Friends were floored by the news.

“I was in a state of disbelief, shock. I had to pull over on the side of the road.” (19:07:40)

It was 8:40am when the bus went through the barrier colliding with a via train just outside Fallowfield station. For those who were on board, it was a surreal moment.

“I just felt he was going to break and seconds later people were shouting to stop and slow down, but I did not feel any slowdown, some of us braced for impact by grabbing the seat or something in front of us.”

5 were pronounced dead at the scene, one more died later in hospital. Now the the focus turns to the investigation, in the hopes that we will find out why those lives were lost. the investigation is now in the hands of the transportation safety board.

They say it could be many months before we know exactly what went wrong.