An afternoon commute in Canada's capital turned to horror after a double-decker city bus became impaled on a passenger shelter, three people are dead and more than 20 are injured after a double-decker bus filled with commuters crashed into Westboro Station in Ottawa.
According to the Ottawa Citizen, the bus was travelling west on the Transitway at around 3:50 p.m. on Friday when the crash occurred. Two of the three people killed in the crash were on the bus, while the other was standing on the platform at the time of the collision.
It is believed that some of those injuries in the crash were critical.
The female driver of the bus has been arrested and is being questioned by Ottawa police.
An investigation is ongoing.
Jim Watson, the mayor of Ottawa, said that one victim was standing on the platform at the time of the collision, and the other two were aboard the bus.
"Our hearts and condolences go out to all those who were injured," Mr Watson said at a news conference. "Our focus now must be to provide care and sympathy for those affected by the accident." Of the injured, 14 arrived at hospitals in critical condition.
It was the second deadly accident involving a double-decker bus in the city in less than six years.
The bus, operated by the city's transit system, OC Transpo, was travelling along a below-grade road reserved for buses when it lost control entering a station west of the city's downtown at about 3:50 p.m., said Chief Charles Bordeleau of the Ottawa Police Service.
It then mounted a passenger platform and crashed into a shelter. The steel and glass of the shelter's overhang tore off the front of the bus and sliced through a large section of its upper deck.
Chief Bordeleau said that most of the injured people were in that part of the bus and that several people on the platform also required treatment.
Why the bus lost control was not clear. It was a bitterly cold afternoon: Officials had delivered a frostbite warning and black ice had developed on several roads throughout the city.
John Manconi, the general manager of OC Transpo, said buses built since that report have included bumpers, but he did know whether the bus in Friday's collision was among them
