Separate tributes honouring those who were killed in the collision between an Ottawa transit bus and a Via Rail train were held Sunday, a day before the first of six funerals is set to take place.

Six people, including the bus driver, died and more than 30 were injured Wednesday, after a OC Transpo bus ran through a lowered railway crossing bar and collided with a Via Rail train in Ottawa's southwest end.

The six victims who died in the crash are: Michael Bleakney, 57; Karen Krzyzewski, 53; Rob More, 35; Connor Boyd, 21; Kyle Nash, 21; and the driver of the bus, 45-year-old Dave Woodard.

More than 40 of Woodard’s friends and family members paid an emotional visit to the crash scene Sunday for the first time, leaving a wooden cross in his honour.

Overcome with emotion, Woodard’s wife Terry helped place the cross at the spot where her husband died. A plaque bearing the names of the five other victims now stands next to the cross, which is also surrounded by bouquets of flowers.

At Wizard’s Tower, a comic book shop not far from the crash site, friends of victims Kyle Nash and Connor Boyd participated in a trading card tournament fundraiser Sunday.

The event was to honour the two Carleton University students who would frequent the store, and to raise money for their families.

At the store, messages of condolences from friends and strangers were written in books to be given to the families, along with the money raised.

“We just wanted to make sure that the family knew that they were both well-respected and well-liked and just good people,” said store employee Jillian Morgan.

Nash would have been competing in a card game at the store this weekend.

“Kyle had actually preregistered for Sunday, he was supposed to play," said shop owner Dave Tellier, holding back tears.

Meanwhile, five churches in Ottawa's south end hosted a joint memorial service for all six victims Sunday evening at the Cedarview Alliance Church.

The first funeral, for Connor Boyd, is set for Monday.

Long road to recovery

While families continue to mourn the tragic loss, survivors say they are struggling to pick up the pieces.

Colleen Thomas was sitting on the upper level of the OC Transpo bus during Wednesday’s crash and says she cannot stop thinking about the tragedy.

"The screams, you know, I keep replaying the train hitting the bus over and over again," a tearful Thomas told CTV Ottawa. "The bodies all over the railroad track, I don't think I'll ever -- for the rest of my life -- not see that."

Thomas says she drove over a train track near her home recently and broke down.

"I just started to cry. I looked down to see if there was anything coming," she said.

In replaying the horrifying images, Thomas says she was lucky to choose the seat she did. "Far enough to live, that's where I was sitting. Far enough to live."

With reports from CTV Ottawa's Claudia Cautillo and Katie Griffin