Alicia Thiffault was sitting on the lower level of the double-decker bus that crashed into a shelter at Ottawa’s Westboro Station on the afternoon of Jan. 11, killing three people and injuring 23 others. She was lucky to walk away unscathed.
For Thiffault, what started as a normal commute soon turned into a nightmare.
“I noticed on the side of my eyes that we were getting really close to the cement walls,” Thiffault said in a Monday interview with CTV Ottawa, recalling the moment just before impact.
“She was jerking the wheel,” she added of the driver. “It wasn’t like what you kind of would think would happen.”
Thiffault said she suddenly felt numb and dazed.
“We impacted and everyone flew forward,” she said. “And then it was just chaotic. Everything was shattered. There was glass everywhere. There was pink fluid from upstairs spraying everywhere. And then there was (a) smell and I was afraid the bus was going to blow up.”
Although she wasn’t hurt physically, she knows that her psychological wounds will take a long time to heal.
“I don’t want to get on a bus again,” she said. “I have to -- I have to get to work. I need to work through that to be able to get on a bus again. But right now, even driving and I see a bus, I start to panic and my heart starts to race.”
Thiffault took Monday off work to collect herself. She’s also spoken with a distress centre and her doctor. Now, her focus is on taking things just one day at a time.
“I got off that bus with no injuries, nothing,” she said. “I’m so lucky and I’m so thankful, but then I also feel horrible for the people that got injured or that were killed.”
