A transit driver in the Toronto-area has been suspended with pay after a bus crashed into a pair of suburban homes.
Security footage obtained by CP24 from one of the Scarborough homes shows the bus jumping the curb, crashing through a front yard fence, before slamming into two cars in the driveway and pushing them into the houses. A time stamp on the footage shows the incident occurred at 1:42 a.m. on Thursday.
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The two homes and two cars in the driveway were severely damaged in the incident. The balcony on one of the houses collapsed.
No one in either house was injured in the incident. One of the owners, who did not disclose his name, told CP24 the sound from the collision was “like a bomb exploding.”
“We came out and my wife started screaming and my kids started screaming and then we called 911,” he said.
The bus driver was taken to hospital as a precaution.
Toronto Transit Commission spokesperson Stuart Green told CP24 they will be conducting an internal investigation, including an inspection of both the bus and the security footage.
“Right now the driver is suspended with pay pending the outcome of our investigation and that is common when we have cases like this,” he said. “We’ll work with Toronto police in whatever way we can to assist them. We’ll also conduct our own review and once we finalize that we will take whatever steps we need to take after that.”
All day long people have been stopping to view the extensive damage and take photos, including a former TTC driving instructor -- Clint Lawrence. Lawrence worked for the company for 32 years, and like the other observers and home owners, he’s trying to understand how this happened.
“I don’t know…the training they [the drivers] get is above and beyond,” he said. “The TTC is one of the safest companies to work for.”
It’s unclear when the residents will be allowed to return home as the buildings need to be inspected for structural integrity.
