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 Posté le: Dim Sep 29, 2013 8:07 am Sujet du message: Ottawa crash 'a tragedy for the whole city’ (with |
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{Ottawa crash 'a tragedy for the whole city’ (with graphic)}
“We’re going to get you to respond to an MVC at Woodroffe and Fallowfield, please ... An OC Transpo bus versus a train. We’re receiving lots of calls for this one.”“Any idea of how many people on board?”“We’re going to be getting this information very shortly. It’s a double-decker bus and ... we keep getting information ...”“Chief,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.org]Michael Kors Outlet[/url], I’ve upgraded it to a large vehicle.”“ ... Dispatch: Pump 44 on scene. We have a double-decker bus. The front end of the bus has significant damage. Multiple patients on the ground ... Upgrade this to a mass casualty. We have one, two, about six code blacks. I have at least three or four code reds on the ground. We have a two-storey bus. The front end is missing ...”“This is a tragedy for the whole city.” Click on the image to enlarge. The words are those of Craig Watson, president of the bus drivers’ union, but they undoubtedly express the sentiments of most every Ottawan following Wednesday morning’s “multiple vehicle collision” between an OC Transpo bus and a Via Rail train. The exchange between the emergency dispatcher, paramedics and firefighters, calm and professional even as the tone of urgency rises — belies the grim reality of the worst accident in the city transit system’s history — six people dead, a dozen critically hurt and nearly two dozen more injured. All those code blacks and code reds.Among the dead was the bus driver, identified as Dave Woodard. As of Wednesday evening, two others had also been formally identified and their families notified, police said, though their names had not been released to the public. Many of the injured — 31 in total — were taken to various Ottawa hospitals, 11 of them in critical condition. Five of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, and a sixth died later in hospital.Bus No. 76, a double-decker with 84 seats and a 90-passenger capacity, was heading north on the Transitway, around 8:50 a.m. According to witnesses, it sped through the railway crossing barrier into a train slowing as it approached the Fallowfield Via Rail station. The impact sheared off the front end of the bus.The crash is under investigation by the Transportation Safety Board, with the assistance of the Ottawa police. Investigators hope the event recorders on the bus and train will provide them with the information needed to determine the cause of the crash. They also want to retrieve the recording device that monitors the crossing guardrails.Officials would not speculate on the cause of the crash. Some witness accounts wondered about a mechanical fault such as malfunctioning brakes, though they raised questions about the driver’s actions as well. According to witnesses, the bus wasn’t slowing sufficiently as it approached the crossing despite the lowered guard barrier. Indeed, passengers were yelling at the driver to “please stop” only seconds before the crash. Others report that the driver was frantically pumping the brakes.“The signal lights for the train were on, the guard rails down,” said one passenger, Gregory Mech. “The bus driver missed that signal. People were screaming for him to stop. It was a second or two before (the collision) and it was too late.”Another passenger, Michael Chartrand, sitting at the back of the bus and later treated in hospital for an ankle injury, the driver “tried to slam on the brakes, but it wasn’t a full slam. Half a second later he fully put the brakes on. The next thing I saw was the train going through the front of the bus.”Witnesses at the intersection at the time of the crash also raised questions about its circumstances. Pascal Lolgis noted that cars on Woodroffe Avenue had stopped for the train, but the bus did not. “I see the bus ... no brakes, no nothing, and boom — he went into the train. He didn’t stop,” Lolgis said. “He must have lost his brakes, or he had a heart attack or whatever. He just didn’t stop.”Mark Cogan, another witness, gave a similar description. “The guard rails were down,” he said. “The train was going through ... He went right through the guard rail and just hammered the train.”The violent crash rocked the bus while the train, the No. 51 from Montreal, which had left the Ottawa station on its way to the Fallowfield station only minutes earlier, managed to stop about 100 metres down the tracks. The wheels of at least one of its cars was off the rails. There were no serious injuries among the train’s 103 passengers, officials reported.Some among them, however, were shocked. “You could hear the front of the bus scraping against the train,” said Lianna Begg, recounting how she’d looked through the train window a split second before the crash and then saw the explosion of dust, gravel and flying metal. “It made me sick to my stomach. You could tell there were fatalities.”Meanwhile, as the dust settled, bus passengers, some in tears, stumbled off the bus through the only exit from the second level. The first couple of steps had been torn away. Outside, the dead and injured lay in the grassy ditches on either side of the tracks, some thrown more than a dozen metres from the crash site.“It was about eight or 10 people along the tracks in the direction the train was travelling that were either hurt or passed away,” said Mech.Dennis Croteau described his wife Carolyn’s ordeal, saying she’d been standing about midway along the bus aisle when others passengers started screaming. “She didn’t realized what was going on; she just heard people screaming, ‘Please stop.’” The collision knocked the woman off her feet and through the air, and she landed on another passenger. “Everyone was crawling and trying to get out. Somebody pried the door open,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.org]Michael Kors Handbags Outlet[/url],” said her husband, who went to hospital after his wife called to say she was being treated for three broken ribs and cuts to her legs. She was eventually released.Some stunned survivors stood beside the tracks in silence. Others wept. Many called their families. Reports of the accident spread quickly, and anxious relatives of the passengers soon gathered at the Transitway just west of the crash site. Others were directed to the nearby Nepean Sportsplex, where the city quickly set up a reunification centre for families.Cendrick Gonga came looking for his mother, Bridget. He’d dropped her off to catch a bus a few minutes before the accident. He was unable to reach her by cellphone, and only later he did he learn she’d been on the No. 76 bus and had been taken to The Ottawa Hospital’s General campus with a hip injury. She was lucky. She was expected to be released later in the day, Gonga said.Others, too, were perhaps lucky. Afsoon Houshidari was running late Wednesday morning and caught the next bus after the No. 76. “We just stopped abruptly and there was smoke,” she said. “I looked over and saw the left side of the bus was hanging off. There were parts of the bus strewn over the road. And then I saw people. People had blood on them. I saw some body parts.”Just being at the scene was shock enough for some. “I’ve been here for an hour trying to get on the bus but every time the doors open I can’t get myself to get on,” Houshidari said.Lisa Souliere was late heading for work after taking her mother to an appointment. “As I’m walking toward the bus station I heard all the sirens. It was already on the news and my daughter called and said, ‘Are you OK? There’s been a huge bus accident.’ It was very frightening.”Ambulances, fire trucks and police cars were on the scene within minutes, helping those they could. The dead were covered with tarps while the injured were rushed to different city hospitals, their destination depending on the severity of their injuries. “The emergency responders did what we do best in a tragedy, which is work together,” said Fire Chief John deHooge.Those less badly hurt were put on a bus and checked by paramedics at the scene. At the Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus, half of the cafeteria was set aside for anxious families and friends. From elsewhere, too, assistance was rapidly organized. The Salvation Army supplied food and water. The Red Cross provided support for families. Canadian Blood Services said it was supplying area hospitals with “their requested orders of additional blood,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.org]Michael Kors Handbags[/url],” and that it received “numerous inquiries” from people offering to donate blood.At a late morning news conference Mayor Jim Watson and Police Chief Charles Bordeleau declined to speculate about the crash. “It is very preliminary to speak to any cause to this collision,” the chief said. Nor was the cause addressed at a second press conference later in the day.Craig Watson, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, who was at the crash site Wednesday morning, acknowledged he’d heard passengers say they’d yelled at the driver to stop. Nevertheless, he also hesitated to speculate about what might have happened in the moments before the crash. “You just don’t know what the cause might be,” he said. “It could be medical, mechanical, there’s just so many variables.”Jean Laporte, chief operating officer with the safety board, said the accident will receive a full and independent investigation “with the aim that it doesn’t happen again.” He promised that while the probe will take several months, any safety-related information uncovered will be made public.As news of the accident spread, messages of sympathy and sorrow for the victims and their families came in. Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke of a “tragic morning in the nation’s capital,” and on behalf of all Canadians, “Laureen and I extend our thoughts and prayers to all those affected by the tragedy.”At Queen’s Park, Premier Kathleen Wynne referred to the “tragedy in Ottawa,” and said: “My heart goes out to all the individuals and families who are affected, and I want to thank first responders for being on the scene.”Archbishop of Ottawa Terrence Pendergast offered prayers for both the victims and those helping them. “I am united in prayer with the families and friends of the deceased and the many injured in this morning’s collision, and I also pray for the first responders.”“On behalf of everyone at VIA Rail,[url=http://www.michael-korshandbags-outlet.org]michael kors canada[/url], we extend our thoughts and prayers to all those affected by todays traffic event,” said Marc Laliberté, president and chief executive officer of the company.“Our city will mourn those we lost, and support those in need,” said Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, the MP for Ottawa West-Nepean.Lisa MacLeod, MPP for Nepean-Carleton, briefly addressed the provincial legislature. “I speak on behalf of everyone here to give love, support and grief to my constituents, those who have lost loved ones.”Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder was with some of the families, trying to help them find information about their loved ones. “Everyone is OK in my family, but obviously people in other families aren’t.”And Mayor Watson, who ordered city flags to fly at half-mast, said, “We join with all members of council in expressing out deepest condolences too all those who affected by this terrible tragedy.”With files from Joanne Laucius, Andrew Seymour, Ian MacLeod, Elizabeth Payne, Meghan Hurley, David Reevely, Joanne Chianello, Shaamini Yogaretnam, Tom Spears, Matthew Pearson, Neco Cockburn, Derek Spalding, Chris Cobb, Laura Armstrong and The Canadian Press
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