Driver shortage, ‘political pressure’ in letting Diallo back on road after prior crash, inquest hears [Video]

A dire driver shortage at OC Transpo in early 2019 played a hand in why the bus operator in the fatal Westboro crash was allowed back behind the wheel after being involved in another serious collision only one month before, an ongoing coroner’s inquest heard.

“The decision to put her back on the road was mine,” Ken Gordon, OC Transpo’s manager of bus operations at the time, testified Wednesday.

“There was always that feeling, that fear, that pressure, that desire to try and maintain service. Had I known what was going to happen, obviously I wouldn’t have … made that decision.”

On Jan. 11, 2019, a packed OC Transpo double-decker driven by Aissatou Diallo slammed into a Transitway bus shelter at Westboro station. Three people — Judy Booth, Bruce Thomlinson and Anja Van Beek — died in the crash and many others were injured.