Grandmother dead after bus rolls down hill in South Vancouver

Onlookers were stunned Saturday after a charter bus rolled backwards down a South Vancouver street -- leading to an 75-year-old woman's death en route to hospital. (CTV)

An 80-year-old woman is dead after falling out of a charter bus as it rolled backwards down a South Vancouver hill, police say.

The bus was loading passengers on Ross Street at 63rd Avenue Saturday morning when the vehicle suddenly started to roll down the hill, according to Sgt. Randy Fincham.

Witnesses said an 80-year-old woman, who was part of an annual group trip to Harrison Hot Springs, was boarding the Premier Pacific Coach Lines bus at around 9 a.m. when the vehicle started to roll.

She reportedly fell out of the bus on to the sidewalk, sustaining what officials initially believed to be minor injuries, while the bus careened an estimated 50 feet down Ross Street.

“The bus was sitting there and eventually, when the people are going in, all of a sudden the bus starts moving down,” said Ross Street Sikh Temple President Sohan Deo.

“So the lady, she was in between the door and the sidewalk, and she was dragged down a few feet.”

A man waiting to board the bus said a quick thinking passenger stopped the tragic incident from becoming worse.

“It’s good luck that there was one guy, he was inside, he jumped on [the] driver’s seat and he braked it,” said Kashmir Singh Dhaliwal. “Otherwise, it could have gone to Marine Drive, it could have been [a] worse accident.”

Emergency teams attended to the woman, who Deo said was an active volunteer for the temple as well as a mother and grandmother, but she died in ambulance en route to a hospital, Fincham said.

“She was a very good lady, she always comes to the temple and she volunteer works too much,” Deo said. “She was in good health…You know, it will be upsetting for the family. This morning she came just to go to that trip.”

A Premier Pacific Coach Lines staff member took the bus driver home after the incident, a representative for the company said.

“I think he was probably shook up over the affair,” he said, adding the driver has 10 to 15 years of experience and may not have had anything to do with the accident.

The Vancouver Police Collision Investigation Unit was called to the scene, and authorities say the driver of the charter bus is cooperating with investigators.

Three others reportedly sustained minor injuries in the accident.