OTTAWA, Ontario — Passengers screamed “Stop! Stop!” seconds before their bus crashed through a crossing barrier and into a commuter train during morning rush hour in Canada’s capital Wednesday, killing six people and injuring 34. OTTAWA, Ontario — Passengers screamed
OTTAWA, Ontario — Passengers screamed “Stop! Stop!” seconds before their bus crashed through a crossing barrier and into a commuter train during morning rush hour in Canada’s capital Wednesday, killing six people and injuring 34.
“He smoked the train,” witness Mark Cogan said of the bus driver, who was among those killed. “He went through the guard rail and just hammered the train, and then it was just mayhem.”
It was not immediately clear what caused the bus to smash through the lowered barrier at a crossing in suburban Ottawa.
The front of the double-decker bus was ripped away by the impact, and the train’s locomotive and one passenger car derailed, though there were no reports of major injuries to train passengers or crew.
Officials in Ottawa initially said 10 of the injured were in critical condition, but by late afternoon, Anthony Di Monte, chief of the Ottawa Paramedic Service, said that number had been lowered, though he could not give a precise figure.
The crash brought trains on the national Via Rail’s Ottawa-Toronto route to a standstill. It was Canada’s second major rail accident in less than three months. A runaway oil train derailed and exploded in a Quebec town on July 6, killing 47.
