Families share lingering scars from Westboro bus crash
Grieving relatives tell inquest about their 'hopelessness' and 'unanswered questions'
Bruce Thomlinson was the kind of fun-loving free spirit who would set a whole shelf of Elmo dolls a-talking in Walmart, or mow his family's lawn in a Flintstones shirt "for all to see," his wife says.
"There was always a laugh involved when you were with him," Elaine Thomlinson said.
Bruce Thomlinson, 56, was one of three people who died in January 2019 when an OC Transpo double-decker carrying him and 84 other people — one person shy of the bus's total seating capacity — slammed into the steel overhang of the Westboro Transitway bus shelter.
The tragedy is now the subject of a weeks-long coroner's inquest that began Wednesday with opening statements from those who lost loved ones in the crash.
Judy Booth, 57, and Anja Van Beek, 65 — who, like Thomlinson, also worked as public servants and were seated at the top right of the bus — died too as a result of the collision, while many other passengers were injured.
Booth was pronounced dead at the scene, while Thomlinson and Van Beek were later declared dead in a hospital only 25 minutes apart.
Losing Thomlinson left "a never-ending scar in your soul," Elaine Thomlinson went on to say, adding that she struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression and "hopelessness."
Karen Benvie, the daughter of Judy Booth, said Booth was taken from her "far too soon" and that "we are left with unanswered questions and an unbearable grief."
Booth was a tenor drummer and surrogate parent figure to her daughter's friends, Benvie added.
"She was a mother to many [and] had a way of making everyone feel welcomed and valued," she said.
Thomlinson and Booth's families — but not Van Beek's — have formal "party standing" in the inquest, meaning they can ask questions of witnesses, as do the City of Ottawa and the union representing OC Transpo employees.
Peter Napier, one of two lawyers leading the inquest, said some family members have opted to participate by watching the virtual inquest's live stream.
"Losing a loved one is always very difficult," Napier said. "Participating in an inquest about the loss of a loved one is exceptionally difficult."
Aissatou Diallo, the driver of the bus who was charged with dangerous driving causing death and was ultimately acquitted, was not cited as an inquest participant — nor was it clear Wednesday if she would testify at some point in the inquest.
The inquest scope
The inquest is not a trial or a process to assign legal blame. Instead, a jury of five civilians is being asked to hear testimony from more than a dozen witnesses and consider making recommendations for how to prevent similar deaths.
Coroner Dr. Louise McNaughton-Filion, who is overseeing the inquest, explained what it will cover and outlined six areas:
- Bus driver training and safety oversight at OC Transpo, specifically for different types of buses and routes, new drivers, and what happens after a collision while on duty.
- Bus driver assignment to different types of buses and routes and its impact, if any, on bus safety.
- Bus transitway construction safety, particularly those similar to Westboro station.
- Collision countermeasures for the involved bus type.
- The role of human factors in driver operation of buses.
- Oversight and planning for double-decker bus transit safety.
Diallo had only been on the job for about six months before the Westboro crash. One month before, Diallo was involved in a separate, albeit less serious, collision.
Double-deckers are still in use in Ottawa, including at the street-level bus shelters at Westboro station.
However, OC Transpo's latest fleet plan calls for the gradual phasing out of double-deckers from 40 per cent of the fleet currently to only 15 per cent by 2036.
That's due to "current and future ridership, capacity, and service level estimates," the inquest heard.
WATCH | Looking back on the crash and its lingering impacts:
After Wednesday's opening statements, Napier went on to read out a summary of the incident examining the collision in forensic detail and drawn in part from a report done by Transport Canada.
The inquest saw photos showing the intense damage sustained by the bus and a video showing the front-window view of the bus that was behind Diallo's.
At some points in the video, the glaring sun briefly obscures the other driver's view of Diallo's bus, though Napier said that for the driver of the bus behind Diallo, "sun was not an issue."
Sun glare was a factor raised in Diallo's trial, as were road markings her defence team said were confusing.
"The analysis of criminal charges laid against the bus driver involved the criminal trial and its outcome" are outside the scope of the inquest, McNaughton-Filion said.
The inquest livestream continues Friday — the jury needs time on Thursday to absorb materials put into the record — and is expected to last four weeks.
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