This kind of senseless death really bothers me. (1 Viewer)

[Micheal]

A bus collides with a stationary car and kills the child in the back seat. The parents are in serious & critical condition. :frowning: Story located here...

A couple from Toronto had car trouble and had to pull over onto a bus lane along the highway. It's a very long and straight part of the highway and it happened at 11:00am. There is no way that the bus driver couldn't have seen them. The police say that there is no evidence of the bus slowing down and the morning news is reporting that charges are pending.

Here is a picture of the car... If you don't want to see it don't scroll down....

























This kind of senseless accident makes me so mad! I've been on the odd bus and they just fly down the bus lanes, why he didn't slow down to stop on such a straight part of the highway is beyond me. He must have seen them.

 

[Clinton McClure]

While I agree there's no reason the bus shouldn't have stopped, or at least changed lanes, I'm curious as to why the car made it's stop in the bus lane and didn't travel the extra 8-10 feet to stop on the shoulder of the road which is designed and designated for stopped vehicles in an emergency-type situation. And who in their right mind would sit in a parked car on the highway? I'm in no way making light of the situation, but you'd think common sense should have stepped in and slapped the parents in the face and told them to get their asses off a busy highway while waiting...

 

[Micheal]

Their car broke down. Sometimes you don't have the luxury of driving it further down the road. (Especially if it won't move!) Maybe they were only sitting there for a minute or two having just called the tow truck and deciding whether or not to take their child out of the car seat.
Regardless, the bus driver should have seen them from a mile away.

Charges are pending for good reason. I know that stretch of road like the back of my hand, he had plenty of time to stop. It's flat and straight, you would have to be blind not to see a car sitting there in broad daylight. He didn't even slow down.

Sorry, but this just really bothers me.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

After the Indy, some 17 and 18 year old idiots were cruising around, firing their high powered beebee pistol into crowds from their car. They hit a five year old boy who was with his family waiting at a bus stop. The beebee entered through his eye and is lodged in his brain. He's in the hospital, and the idiots have been arrested.

 

[Jason Merrick]

who in their right mind would sit in a parked car on the highway?

Actually, I am pretty sure that is what the safety people usually recommend you do. Your car provides you a lot of protection that you lose as soon as you step out.

 

[David-S]

Actually, I am pretty sure that is what the safety people usually recommend you do. Your car provides you a lot of protection that you lose as soon as you step out.

Especially if you're stopped on a busy road, on the shoulder or close to the roadway, i would GET OUT of the car, and walk onto the side, I've seen way too many instances of cars getting hit while on the shoulder (including police cars, w/ lights on) to ever feel safe stopped on a shoulder...

 

[MarkHastings]

I'm not trying to defend anyone here until I know the whole story, but I highly doubt the bus driver saw them and hit them on purpose.

Not that this is an excuse what-so-ever, but it's probably drug related on something that...At least I hope no one would do something like that on purpose. :frowning:

 

[Micheal]

Actually, I am pretty sure that is what the safety people usually recommend you do. Your car provides you a lot of protection that you lose as soon as you step out.

I've heard the same thing. This family is hardly the one at fault here!

 

[Joe Szott]

I hate to voice it, but it would be better if the parents die in the hospital too. Waking up to find that your baby was dead and your spouse in critical condition, that might just be too much to bear. Maybe they could get back to a normal life in 10-20 years, but I doubt it.

Yeah, this is a total shame. Poor folks...

 

[Leila Dougan]

I would also guess that the family was not native to the area. They were driving a rental car so perhaps they stopped in the bus lane because they didn't know exactly what to do, or were disoriented, or whatever. They must have been there long enough to have already called a tow truck, but still. Imagine them standing out of the car when the bus came rocketing through, surely none of them would have survived.

This story is absolutely tragic and my heart goes out to them. Imagine being in your 20s, newly married with a baby, and obviously on some sort of trip, and suddenly your whole life has changed. :frowning:

 

[Micheal]

I would also guess that the family was not native to the area.

You would be correct. They are from Toronto, which is about 5 hours away. They were visiting friends in Ottawa. Very sad indeed. :frowning:

 

[Malcolm R]

Shock at what? That he hit a parked car with a bus going about 100 km/h and people were hurt/killed? What a f***in' zero.

Hard to believe no passengers on the bus noticed what was about to happen either. I know there were only a few, but you'd think at least one person might have noticed they were bearing down on a stationary vehicle.

 

[Karl_Luph]

I'm sorry to hear about this accident too. We can only pray that the survivors and their families will have the moral guidance to endure this most difficult time.

 

[Will Pomeroy]

I went to school last year at the University of Ottawa, and I've been down that highway many a' times... The bus drivers in the area are known to be somewhat aggressive, and its possible that he thought the car was driving in "his lane", possibly to get around slower traffic in the main lanes, and expected the car to re-merge back into the main lanes.

Its a horrible tragedy, and i'm just providing some insight into why the bus may have been going so fast. My heart goes out to the family. Hopefully its still a family.

 

[Micheal]

I live in Ottawa (just on the outskirts) and I drive down that part of the highway to go home everyday. There is clear evidence that the bus driver never applied the brakes... at all!(no skid marks before impact whatsoever) He would have been able to see this car sitting in his lane from a great distance. Why he didn't hit the brakes or at least slow down is beyond me.:frowning:

 

[MarkHastings]

Why he didn't hit the brakes or at least slow down is beyond me.

That's why I'm still not buying the fact that he saw the car and just didn't stop. It's really hard to imagine that someone could be so careless. I know a lot are believing that this guy just decided to plow into the car, but I am praying that there is more to the story and that there really aren't people out there that would be willing to slam into a car for whatever reason.

Believe me, I would wish nothing but the absolute worst for this bus driver if it was carelessness on his part, but something just doesn't sound right...It sounds like we're missing an important part of the story.

But that's just me.

 

[Micheal]

He's clearly at fault, it's just a matter of how much. He's obviously not blind so that just leaves a handful of options. Was he falling asleep? Was he on drugs or medication? Was he chatting it up with a passenger and not paying attention? (Seeing the car at a distance but assuming that it was moving?) What other explanation could there be? It's not like they cut in front of the bus? If I was driving in my own lane (like a bus has) and I hit a vehicle that was sitting still and I could clearly see it at a distance... it would be my fault. Plain and simple.

The fact that the morning radio report was indicating that "charges are pending" tells me that he is at fault. They were calling it an "accident" yesterday, but not today.

 

[Jamie Doucette]

The bus driver might have been "hypnotized". I don't recall what the exact term is, but when someone drives for long periods of time on a straight flat road, they can loose their concentration on what they are doing.

When the Confederation Bridge was built from New Brunswick to P.E.I. (roughly 12.1 Km) the engineers made the bridge into a slight "S" curve, so when traveling this distance people would stay more alert as they needed no make small turns. The same thing is applied to many new highways on long straight and flat sections of land. Reason being driving in a straight line can become very boring and your mind begins to wander.

I'm not familiar with this section of highway, and I don't know how flat or straight it is, but perhaps the Bus Driver lost his concentration because of driving this road "over and over" again in a straight line.

 

[Nathan*W]

A lot of people are vilifying the bus driver in this thread, but I seen many collisions or near misses of this type. From what I've read, there's plenty of blame here to go around.

If a vehicle is in a travel lane of a highway, any driver behind that vehicle will expect the vehicle in front to be moving. Especially if the stopped car had no lights of of any kind (eg. brake lights or emergency flashers) In this situation there is a kind of optical illusion that takes place, partly because on straight stretches of road, a drivers POV (point of view) changes very little relative to a car on front of him. Couple this with a driver's preconceived notions of what should be in a travel lane (ie. NOT a stopped car) and I can completely see how a collision like this can happen. I can't speak as to why the family in the car didn't coast to the emergency lane. NO car breaks down and comes to an immediate stop. Traveling highway speeds allows plenty of time to navigate to the shoulder, even in a crippled car. Once stopped, why did the parents think it was a good idea to stay in their car, in a lane of travel??? Going back to the basics of drivers ed. 1)Don't expect other drivers to see you. 2)Don't expect other drivers to have fast reaction time. This is not offered as an excuse and I agree that the bus driver should be charged, however, I'm a little dismayed by the close mindedness of some of the responses I've read here.

Please try to keep in mind people, that most likely this bus driver did NOT wake up and decide to plow into a car today, and he will have to live with the knowledge of the small life that was taken. Like most of us, he would probably do anything if he could take back what happened.

 

[Andrew S]

I heard this story on the radio all morning today at work, as well as the story about the 5-year-old getting hit with the pellet. Very sad.
Andrew