Ottawa: Train Crashes Into Bus 'Killing Many'

Passengers shouted "Stop! Stop!" as a bus drove through a lowered crossing barrier and on to tracks seconds before it was hit by a train.

Witnesses said that the bus driver appeared to drive straight through the barrier in the middle of the morning rush-hour 12 miles south of the Canadian capital.

The impact ripped off the front of the double-decker bus, killing five people and injuring six others.

The derailed train. Pic: Laura Stone

None of the passengers travelling on the Via Rail train was injured in the crash just outside the suburban train station of Fallowfield at around 8.48am local time, the middle of the morning commute.

Tanner Trepaniere, who was on board the bus, said passengers could see the train bearing down on them as the bus approached the crossing.

She said: "People started screaming, 'Stop, stop!' because they could see the train coming down the track."

Pascal Lolgis, who witnessed the crash, said the bus appeared to drive through a lowered crossing barrier across the Ottawa to Toronto line.

"Boom! It went into the train like that. He just didn't stop."

Another witness, Mark Cogan, said the rail barrier had been down but the bus carried on.

"The train is going through and I was just looking around, just watching things happen. And noticed that in the bus lane, the double-decker bus ... I saw him, and he just kept going.

The bus at the scene of the smash. Pic: Darryl Praill

"I just thought maybe there's a side way around or something, but instantly, he just ... he smoked the train. He went through the guard rail and just hammered the train, and then it was just mayhem."

Chad Mariage, who was on his way to work, was seated toward the back of the bus's second level when the accident happened.

He said: "The impact was pretty severe. People were a screaming on the bus just prior to the crash, he said, adding that the crash 'wasn't a direct hit.'

"We could all see the train coming towards us almost in slow motion. The bus driver hit the brakes but too late."

The train tracks in the area cross both a major city road and a transit line reserved solely for buses.

Transportation Safety Board of Canada spokesman Chris Krepski tells CBC News Network investigation could take as long as a year.

He said: "Obviously we'll let the first responders do their work. Once their work is complete we'll start to take a closer look at the accident scene, document the wreckage, take some photos of the wreckage.

"We'll also take a very close look at the crossing design, what the sightlines were at the crossing, whether or not any kind of warning or protection systems at the crossing were working.

"We'll also examine the data from the locomotive event recorder, similar to a black box on an aircraft, which documents what controls were being used at the time of the crash."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his condolences in a message on Twitter saying: "Deeply saddened to hear about the bus-train collision in Ottawa this morning. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those involved."

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