City of Ottawa takes action at bus-train crash site

Crews cut down trees along the transitway near the site of the September 18 bus-train crash.

The city of Ottawa isn’t waiting for all the answers to act after last month’s fatal bus-train crash.

Crews were busy clearing all the trees along the transitway near where the crash occurred on September 18. The collision between an OC Transpo bus and VIA rail passenger train claimed six lives.

“When the Transportation Safety Board did their re-enactment they made a number of observations,” says Diane Deans, chair of Ottawa’s transit commission.

“It was their observations that they made that led us to those four measures that we took today,” she says.

Those measures also include lowering the speed limit to 50 km/h, bigger signs, and installing an early warning light to indicate when a train is coming.

Transit users say it helps to see the city take some kind of action.

“I knew Connor. I worked with him. It's horrible and I think it's good they're actually putting in measures now to ensure this won't happen again,” says Nick Hussey, friend of Connor Boyd who died in the crash.

The city made it clear observations by the Transportation Safety Board should not be confused as causes of the crash nor were they forced to make the changes. Still, the proactive measures only came after hearing from safety investigators.

With a report from CTV’s John Hua.