Show Some Humanity Over Bus Crash: THE VOTER

The city response to the Westboro bus crash is unconscionable.

There are survivors as well as the families of the three deceased victims who are rightly waiting for some result, some outcome, from the inquest. They know it won’t heal their injuries or bring back their loved ones but it could help ensure that no other families have to go through this. It could also help with the “Why?” questions they have.

The inquest has given them information that wasn’t available before about the circumstances around the event including the training or lack thereof that was provided to the bus driver by the city through OC Transpo. It was stunning to hear from an OC Transpo employee who said the driver was put back behind the wheel of a bus shortly after she had an accident with another bus and that she received minimal retraining because of “political” pressure to meet schedules, etc.

Could Mr. Lawyer-obviously-worried-about-liability not have reached into his stock of humanity to even utter a thoughts- and-prayers comment to these families? This kind of cold, unfeeling memo does not reflect the vast majority of the people he supposedly serves across this city.

City Commits To ‘Take Time’ On Inquest Requests

This demeanor of his is particularly grating when you read the jury’s recommendations (which I suggest everyone should do). A coroner’s inquest cannot assign legal blame for the events that took place at that bus station or the consequences thereof. However, the jury has pretty clearly indicated in its findings that the City of Ottawa and OC Transpo bear some responsibility for the deaths and injuries to our neighbours as they rode the bus that day with the reasonable expectation that they would arrive home as they had done many times before.

The very least he could have done would have been to set a date by which the city would be providing its response to the jury’s recommendations. The sooner, the better. Any inkling of a sense of compassion for these families and the community who’ve waited long enough for answers would have pushed him to put everything his office has to work at providing that response. It might not provide closure but it would help.

It’s time for Mayor Mark Sutcliffe  to give this guy a hefty push to get a move on with providing that response. Common decency requires it. Legal niceties be damned. While I condemn political pressure putting that driver back behind the wheel of a bus when she might not have been ready, I wholeheartedly encourage it when it might help the people who suffered and are suffering as a result of the city’s actions.

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