The collision sparked a flurry of lawsuits against the City of Ottawa and prompted a criminal trial that saw the driver acquitted. Now a public inquest is looking at what happened with fresh eyes.
The horrific 2019 bus crash that left three Ottawa commuters dead, injured more than 30 other passengers, sparked a flurry of lawsuits, triggered a criminal trial that ended in the acquittal of the bus driver — and ultimately raised questions about bus safety in the city — is now back under the microscope.
On Jan. 11, 2019, an OC Transpo double-decker carrying 85 passengers slammed into the steel overhang of the Westboro transitway bus shelter.
Area resident Len Tucker remembers staring down at the chaotic site.
“There [were] stretchers … you see the bus damaged, you see the roof…. You knew it was catastrophic,” Tucker, the current chair of the Westboro Community Association, recalled to CBC …