Driver's record presented to jury during Ottawa bus crash inquest
Families of two of the people who died in the 2019 bus crash testified before a coroner's inquest
Article content
OC Transpo driver Aissatou Diallo returned from a three-week leave — imposed to investigate her role in a bus collision at St. Laurent Station — just five days before the fatal Westboro crash, an inquest jury has heard.
Diallo was behind the wheel of double-decker Bus 8155 when it drifted off the Transitway, hit a rock wall, then slammed into Westboro Station’s passenger shelter on Jan. 11, 2019.
Recommended Videos
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Driver's record presented to jury during Ottawa bus crash inquest Back to video
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Passengers Bruce Thomlinson, 56, Judy Booth, 57, and Anja Van Beek, 65, were killed, and 17 others were seriously wounded. Some of those injuries were life-changing.
The inquest heard details of Diallo’s driving record, which has previously been shielded from access-to-information requests.
Entered as an exhibit Wednesday, that driving record showed Diallo completed a 31-day bus driver training program in August 2018. The inquest heard the training program featured 132 hours of road training, with one day of intensive training on double-decker buses.
A three-month performance review in November found no issues with Diallo’s driving, and she successfully completed a winter driving training session later the same month.
On Dec. 10, 2018, Diallo was driving an articulated bus when it collided with a parked bus at St. Laurent Station. She was immediately taken off-duty while the accident was investigated.
OC Transpo fleet safety officers found the root cause of the collision was “operator error and failure to adjust speed to road conditions.”
Diallo was placed on a three-week investigatory leave, the document said, and required to attend a skills-building training session. On Jan. 4, 2019, Diallo drove a bus with passengers while an OC Transpo instructor assessed her skills for two and a half hours.
No major issues were cited, but her instructor “reminded her to use the accelerator a bit less for better control of the bus and to keep a little more distance between the bus and parked cars when passing.”
The instructor concluded she “demonstrated acceptable bus handling skills,” and Diallo was cleared to return to work.
She was back behind the wheel of a passenger bus on Jan. 6. The Westboro crash occurred on her fourth day of work that same week.
The coroner’s inquest will investigate the circumstances that led to the deaths of the three passengers and can make recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.
The month-long inquest began with emotional statements from two of the victims’ families.
Elaine Thomlinson told the inquest she has suffered post-traumatic stress, anxiety, hopelessness and severe depression in the aftermath of her husband’s death.
Bruce Thomlinson sat in the right, front row on the upper deck of Bus 8155. The inquest heard he died from “multiple blunt force injuries.” Booth and Van Beek had the same injuries.
“The after-effects are shock, fear, devastation and pain that leave a never-ending scar in your soul,” Elaine Thomlinson told the inquest.
A father of two boys, a Scout leader and civil servant, Bruce Thomlinson loved camping, boating and fishing with his sons. Elaine described him as energetic, fun-loving and goofy. “Bruce was a big kid himself,” she said. “His favourite things were his family, the outdoors, strawberry-rhubarb pie, beer and music, including his favourite band, Rush.”
Karen Benvie told the inquest that her mother, Judy Booth, was a wise, caring, kind-hearted woman whose “effervescent personality filled the room.” She cherished her daughters to such an extent, Benvie said, that she even kept a childhood drawing of a dehumidifier.
“She had a way of making you feel important, and she carried herself with intelligence and grace,” Benvie said.
She said the sudden loss of her mother had left a void that could not be filled. “She was taken from us far too soon, and we are left with unanswered questions and an unbearable grief. Her absence is felt every day in the silence where her laughter used to be.”
Presiding officer Dr. Louise McNaughton-Filion extended her sympathies to the families Wednesday and vowed that the inquest would be worthwhile. “This is going to be hard, but it’s going to make a difference in the future,” she told them.
McNaughton-Filion said the inquest would examine bus driver training, the handling of new drivers, how a driver was managed after a collision, the assignment of bus routes and bus types, along with “the role of human factors” in the operation of buses.
It will also examine the design of the Transitway and measures put in place to guard against collisions.
The safety oversight of the city’s double decker bus fleet will also be examined.
The jury is prohibited from assigning blame or responsibility.
Diallo was charged with three counts of dangerous driving causing death and 35 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm in connection with the Westboro crash.
She was acquitted on all charges in September 2021 as the judge ruled Diallo’s actions had not been a “marked departure” from the standard of care a reasonably prudent driver would have exercised in the same situation. He found the collision was not due to Diallo’s inattention or unresponsiveness, but to a tragic combination of circumstances: a blinding sunset, some confusing road markings and snow on the shoulder of the road.
The inquest heard Wednesday that a Transport Canada report estimated Bus 8155 was travelling 36 to 40 km/h when it hit Westboro Station.
A driver in an OC Transpo bus behind Bus 8155 told Transport Canada investigators the sun was not an issue, and another operator during a re-enactment the following day said the same thing.
The inquest resumes Friday.
Andrew Duffy is a National Newspaper Award-winning reporter and long-form feature writer based in Ottawa. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.