Background
Barrhaven is a suburb of 103234 people (as of 2021) outside Ottawa in southeast Canada, located in the Province of Ontario 14km/8.7mi south-southwest of Ottawa itself and 170km/106mi west of Montreal (both measurements in linear distance).
Barrhaven is included in the public transit system of nearby Ottawa, including the “Transitway”, a bus line network largely consisting of bus-lanes on city streets along with selected roadways used for nothing but busses and emergency responders. One of the stations on the southwest Transitway line is Fallowfield, a combined station for both the bus network and Via Rail, the state-run company in charge of Canadian passenger train operations. Buses departing Fallowfield station northbound turn north after a short distance, aligning with the parallel (but separate) Woodroffe Avenue before crossing the rail line 400m/1312ft down the line from the station.
The Vehicles Involved
Via Rail train #51 was a passenger service from Ottawa to Toronto, consisting of four LRC-type single-level passenger cars pulled by VIA locomotive number 915, a General Electric P42DC Genesis. The P42DC is a four-axle diesel locomotive from General Electric’s “Genesis”-series, existing as a modernization of the P40DC introduced in 1992. The type measures 21m/69ft in length at a weight of 121.7 metric tons and can be easily identified by its relatively streamlined design compared to most American locomotives of their time. They can reach up to 177kph/110mph thanks to a turbocharged V16 diesel engine producing 3170kW/4250hp. The train carried 108 passengers and four attendants along with a driver and conductor (who rode in the locomotive’s cab), both of which had over 15 years of job experience.
At the same time OC Transpo (Ottawa’s public transit provider) bus number 8017 was serving express route 76 from Barrhaven to downtown Ottawa. Bus #8017 was a Alexander Dennis Enviro500, a three-axle bilevel bus for city and regional services introduced in 2002. Different configurations of the type exist, with the ones used by OC Transpo measuring 12.8m/42ft in length at a height of 4.2m/14ft. The configuration used by OC Transpo offers a total of 82 seating positions along with a standing capacity of 25 on the lower deck. There are handrails installed on the upper deck, but standing there while the bus is in motion is prohibited. The buses are equipped with several surveillance cameras inside and on the exterior, whose footage is displayed on a video screen to the top-left of the driver’s seat. Bus #8017 had been delivered a year before the accident and had covered 42500km/26408mi with a clean maintenance record.
The Accident
OC Transpo #8017 arrives at Fallowfield station at 8:46:24am on the 18th of September 2013, unloading and loading passengers through the two doors on the side. Among the would-be passengers is a cyclist who loads his bike onto the carrying rack mounted to the front of the bus, delaying his entry into the bus. The rear side door is shut at 8:46:53, with passengers continuing to enter through the forward side door. The driver asks four passengers standing right at the door to move back behind the driver area (marked by a yellow line on the bus floor) and checks the surveillance feed from the upper deck, telling the passengers that there are still seats available upstairs. One of the passengers moves up the stairs (located just behind the driver) but fails to find any free seats. He forwards the information to the passengers below but remains upstairs, picking a spot to stand and hold on to a handrail. The cyclist is engaged in a discussion with the driver about seating-availability on the upper deck while passenger loading finishes up, leaving the bus with a full lower deck, 13 standing passengers in the lower deck, one empty seat on the upper deck and one standing passenger at the top of the stairs.
The bus departs Fallowfield station at 8:47:27am, 4 minutes behind schedule, and enters the northbound lane of the Transitway as passengers standing towards the front still discuss their options regarding seating on the other deck. They reportedly wonder if it was safe to walk around/head up the stairs while the bus was in motion. The cyclist also moves up towards the windshield, allegedly wanting to keep an eye on his bicycle. The bus enters the left hand turn towards the level crossing at 8:47:57am, 2 seconds before the level crossing comes into fully view at a distance of 122.5m/402ft. The lights at the crossing were already flashing at this point and its barriers were lowered according to the crossing’s data logger.
Survivors later recall that people start shouting at the driver to watch out/stop around this time, while the bus is approaching the closed level crossing at 68kph/42mph. It’s debatable if the driver heard the shouting over the bus’ operational noise, but surveillance footage shows him refocusing from the surveillance monitor to the road ahead just at that point and stomping on the brakes. The bus breaches the boundary of the level crossing at 8:48:06am, breaking through the southern barrier and continuing to slide with full brakes applied. It enters the tracks at 8kph/48mph just as the incoming train reaches the Transitway, meeting the bus corner-to-corner at 69kph/43mph as the train driver triggered an emergency stop a few seconds prior.
The impact from the train shears a triangular section off the bus’ front end, from the right hand leading corner to the area behind the driver’s seat on the left hand side, obliterating the forward few feet on both decks. Debris is send flying out from the bus, with some becoming lodged under the locomotive's wheels and derailing it. The bus barely moves from the point of impact as the train cut clean through it, while the train, with the locomotive and all four cars derailed, grinds to a halt 210m/690ft beyond the point of impact. The bus driver and four of his passengers are killed in the collision, a fifth passenger later succumbs to their injuries at the hospital. 34 passengers survive with injuries, nine of which suffer severe injuries.
Aftermath
People aboard two busses following closely behind #8017 become the first people on site, with drivers and passengers rushing over to the wreckage and rendering first aid a few minutes before professional responders arrive. Passengers also soon step off the derailed train, assisted by their attendants who proceed to regroup the passengers at the station. Nobody from the train requires medical attention. It took until 10:50am for all surviving passengers from the train and bus to be accounted for and those requiring medical attention to be taken to nearby hospitals.
Surviving passengers from the bus told investigators that it didn’t seem like the driver noticed the train either at all or until it was too late, with upper deck passengers saying they “expected it to stop any minute”. Investigators find skid marks (rubber lines on the tarmac caused by stopped wheels being dragged along) behind the bus’ rear wheels, measuring just 7.6cm/3in in length once the bus is removed to examine the marks in whole. This proves that the driver did attempt to slow down, but did so fatally late.
The 45 years old driver had been hired in 2005 following a clean medical exam and had a fine employment record, collecting just 4 disciplinary points on his record in the two years prior to the accident which was considered typical for his profession and duty-frequency. Records showed a total of 407 shifts in the year prior to the accident, 67 (16%) of which were behind the wheel of an Enviro500. These shifts had seen him pass the site of the accident 16 times southbound and 44 times northbound as he was working as a “spare”, meaning he filled in on different routes. It’s unclear how often he encountered the crossing closed, but as he had a four-minute delay on the day of the accident it’s assumed that the crossing was usually clear.
Medical records showed that the driver had been diagnosed with Deutan-type color vision defect (“color blindness”), a type of vision defect that can make it difficult to differentiate red and green colors but also reduce brightness perception on red by up to 10%. The defect was not prohibitive of a position as a bus driver at OC Transpo, since traffic lights were still easily recognizable and their red and green positions, if affected, could be easily memorized. The report further notes that the driver wore reddish-brown sunglasses at the time of the accident, which were popular to reduce glare from the road and surrounding cars. The tint of the glasses absorbs more green and blue-colored light but actually doesn’t affect red, making red lights and surfaces stand out more.
A toxicology-report and related examinations also find no sign of a medical emergency, no trace of drugs or alcohol and no trace of a diabetes-medication the driver was taking when his diabetes flared up, meaning his blood sugar had also been stable in the days prior to the accident. His work/rest-ratio was also found to be up to the required standards.
With a medical emergency out of the running, no sign of a technical defect to be found and a purposeful act being deemed extremely unlikely there was only one realistic option left, momentary distraction. The Enviro500 is manufactured in the UK, the type’s main market, and thus mainly designed for the UK market. Laws there require extensive video coverage inside and outside the bus, something retained on the units purchased by OC Transpo. The main purpose of the camera system in Canada, aside from providing better rear visibility when backing up, was to let the driver keep an eye on the upper deck. Survivors later claimed that the driver spent significant time upon departure from Fallowfield station looking at the screen, taking his attention at least partially away from the road ahead. Based on survivor statements it’s likely that he tried to see if the passengers standing up front could find seating upstairs, and perhaps also made sure no passengers were standing on the upper deck, which was prohibited.
The report does not determine if the cyclist standing at the front of the bus, either right on or forward of the line marking the driver area, provided a significant additional distraction, along with the passengers talking just behind the line.
The final report was thus published on the second of December 2015, claiming the cause to be distraction provided by the videoscreen which the driver had to keep an eye on as part of his job. He looked at the screen, as the report found, at such unlucky times/intervals that he failed to see the crossing’s barriers and lights in time to stop. The severity of the distraction was emphasized by the bus reaching speeds of 67.6kph/42mph ahead of the collision, in excess of the line’s 60kph/37mph speed limit.
The report made several recommendations to reduce the risk of a repetition, including suggesting that the surveillance screen should go blank shortly after the bus begins moving rather than providing a non-stop feed throughout the journey. It was also recommended that Transport Canada, the Canadian traffic ministry, should urgently develop and implement crashworthiness standards for passenger busses. While it has to be kept in mind that an impact from a train is an extremely violent event the bus was still considered to behave unsatisfactory for the conditions as even load-bearing framing was torn away with so little resistance that the bus didn’t even pivot due to the impact.
The city of Ottawa retired OC Transpo Route 76 in summer 2014, replacing it with route 72 (which serves the same stations). A memorial park dedicated to the victims was opened at Fallowfield station in October 2015, with six sections honoring each of the victims of the accident being arranged around a central seating-area and main memorial. Each of the six sections has their own memorial-plaque with a personalized inscription, while the main memorial, a tall boulder, carries the following inscription in English and French:
This memorial honors the individuals whose lives were forever changed on September 18, 2013 and is dedicated to the timeless memory of the six individuals who lost their lives.
One event…many realities.
Several lawsuits filed against the city of Ottawa and the bus driver’s family began settling in Summer 2017, eventually totaling almost 10 million Canadian dollars (7.4 Million USD/6.8 Million Euros) in payouts. A press release in February 2016 saw the city of Ottawa follow up one one of the reports’ further suggestions, announcing that five level crossings, including the site of the accident, were under examination for replacement with a bridge.
The surroundings of the site were changed after the accident, with brush and trees being cleared to improve sight lines, the bus’ speed limit on the section being lowered to 50kph/31mph, and an early warning light being installed near the bus station to tell drivers if a train was coming before they got near the crossing.
The accident claimed a seventh life in August 2017 when one of the survivors took their own life, an act their family traced to trauma, survivor's guilt and related mental issues triggered by experiencing and surviving the crash. In their statement they said that the individual had been a very different person since the accident and was struggling heavily with a return to regular life. It’s a tragic reminder that walking away from a catastrophic event physically unscathed doesn’t mean that one is “fine”.
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