Driver shortage, 'political pressure' in letting Westboro operator back on road after prior crash
Lack of other 'red flags' also considered, OC Transpo official tells inquest
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.
While the city accepted civil responsibility for the crash, Diallo was charged with 38 counts of dangerous driving causing death or bodily harm. She was acquitted of all charges in a judge-only trial in 2021.
One month before the Westboro crash on Dec. 10, 2018, Diallo crashed a 60-foot articulated bus into another bus parked at St-Laurent station. The other bus driver was among those injured and, according to Gordon, the other bus became a write-off.
Operator error and failure to adjust speed to road conditions were the root causes of that collision, the inquest has heard.
'Operational and political pressures'
The inquest, which began earlier this month, is looking into the circumstances and fallout of the Westboro crash. It's seeking ways to make transit in Ottawa safer and prevent future tragedies.
On Wednesday, Gordon was asked why Diallo was allowed to drive again after the investigation into the St-Laurent collision, which led to only one day of refresher training for Diallo. That remedial training was "nowhere near the level it is now," he said, but it was Gordon's call not to fire Diallo and instead send her to the refresher training.
A lot went into that decision, he said, "but the operational and political pressures were absolutely felt. Whether or not they were felt by everybody, I don't know, but I know I felt them."
Looking back, he said: "I wouldn't have recommended remedial training. I would have recommended termination."
The remedial instructor was very experienced and "would have never cleared [Diallo] if he didn't feel comfortable with her driving alone," though Gordon could not recall if he spoke to that instructor before deciding to let Diallo back on the road.
"She cleared training, and then she had the accident at Westboro several days later," he said.
Had the Westboro crash not happened, Diallo would have been called in for a disciplinary meeting about the December collision.
Diallo was still within her nine-month probation period. She'd been hired in the summer of 2018 with no experience driving a bus, as indicated in application materials shown at the inquest.
She'd mainly driven large SUVs and had 17 years of experience driving in winter conditions "similar to Ottawa."
Gordon outlined several reasons for Diallo's reinstatement, including the lack of "red flags" on Diallo's brief OC Transpo driving record.
"She came to work. She didn't have customer complaints. She didn't have prior collisions [before St-Laurent]," Gordon said.
Winter driving conditions, including black ice at the station that had been noted by other drivers, were considered.
Few drivers were fired and "having been to a number of arbitrations myself ... she had no discipline on file, so that was always obviously a risk."
Gordon said another factor, dating back many months at OC Transpo, seeped in too.
"Obviously the operational pressures, the need for operators, the shortage of operators to do the work came into play," Gordon said.
"A day didn't go by that I didn't get an email from my councillor's office asking why this route does not function properly."
Those shortages went back to the summer of 2018, when OC Transpo issued layoff notices to over 300 bus operators as it prepared for the launch of its LRT service.
That caused an exodus of drivers from OC Transpo, so the transit agency kept hiring new drivers even if it couldn't guarantee them work when they graduated from the training program, Gordon said.
Diallo joined OC Transpo in the summer 2018 and the extreme driver shortages persisted into 2019.
"The delivery of daily operations or service was constantly a challenge because we never had enough operators to deliver the service," he said.
"It seems like we were never able to catch up and this went on and on and on until light rail finally launched."
'Safety was not at the forefront'
Gordon said that period was a "rough time" for OC Transpo. The workforce adjustments, "constant" bad media coverage, political pressure and people leaving the organization took its toll, he said.
"I don't want this inquest to think that there wasn't a focus on safety. There is always a focus on safety," he said, adding that OC Transpo was concerned about employee well-being.
"But in my mind ... safety was not at the forefront. The organization is too reactive or too focused on responding to collisions ... more reactive rather than proactive," he said.
"Back then, it was a lot of rinse and repeat."
The need for bus operators led to unsuitable candidates becoming OC Transpo drivers, including people with no familiarity with Ottawa and its bus routes — to the point where they'd have to be directed by the transit agency's control centre, he said.
"I'm not saying [the Westboro] collision happened as a result of [Diallo] not being familiar with the area," Gordon said, adding that he believed she was from the Orléans area. It's quite possible she had driven the route of the Westboro crash before the day of the collision, he said.
Driver-facing cameras would answer many questions
Gordon recommended a number of changes Wednesday and, in one case, deviated sharply from the the president of the union local that represents OC Transpo workers.
That president, Noah Vineberg, testified Tuesday his union would never stand in the way of safety but also expressed concerns about invasive "Big Brother" cameras that would face bus drivers.
Gordon, on the other hand, unreservedly endorsed adding those cameras to OC Transpo buses.
"In a situation like Westboro, had we had a camera on the driver seeing exactly what she was focused on, where she was looking, was she on this?, was she listening to that?, was she looking at a customer or was she looking at her transit control head? — that would have answered a lot of questions.
"People need to focus on the fact that these aren't designed to nitpick and catch you picking your nose. It's designed to save lives and bring around a safer operation."
Gordon also wants to see the use of more telematics — GPS-technology used to relay information about drivers in real time.
"I understand that there's a cost, but you know, there's a real cost to injuries and collisions and deaths," he said.
Gordon recommended a test quizzing people about their knowledge of Ottawa, more mentorship opportunities for new drivers, and more spaces to do the training. The city is leasing space from the Ministry of Transportation.
Gordon, who is currently on leave from OC Transpo, said the transit agency's training division should also be more independent from operations.
The inquest continues Thursday.
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