Bus drivers in shock after deadly crash

DORVAL—Montreal’s bus drivers are in shock after two people were killed and several were injured in a violent collision involving a city bus and a car at the end of Tueday’s rush hour.

One of the dead was 49-year-old Sylvain Ferland, the driver of the Route 196 bus, who was ejected from his seat by the force of the collision and was pinned under the flipped over bus for four hours before emergency crews could retrieve his body.

The bus drivers’ union can’t remember the last time when a driver was killed on Montreal’s roads. Ferland's wife and sister were also both employed as drivers.

“I’m still in shock, we’re all in shock,” said Tommy Mouhteros, speaking for the Montreal bus drivers’ union. “There is counselling being offered to our drivers. This is something out of the ordinary. This is something unbelievable that has happened and we are in mourning for our driver.

“Let’s not forget that two people died in this accident, my condolences go out to the families.”

The second casualty was a 61-year-old woman indentified by the coroner as Janet Stoddard Snider. She was in the passenger seat of a BMW that struck the bus at the corner of 55th Ave. and Lindsay Ave. in Dorval.

Two other people suffered very serious head injuries and were in serious condition, including the female driver of the BMW and a passenger on the bus. Both are expected to survive.

Five people were taken to hospital to be treated for relatively minor injuries. Four other people were treated on the scene by emergency crews, but chose not to be transported to hospital.

Reconstruction experts were on the scene for hours Tuesday night, trying to determine the cause of the crash. Because the crash took place at 6 p.m. few eyewitnesses were in the industrial park, where shifts largely end at 5 p.m.

From the manner in which the vehicles were damaged, it would appear the bus was heading north on 55th Ave., and drove over the hood of the BMW, heading west on Lindsay Ave., then toppling on its side.

There were about 14 people riding on the bus at the time of the deadly collision.

With files from The Canadian Press

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  Janet Stoddard Snider, seen here, was one of the two victims.

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  A body, covered in a yellow tarp, lies next to a bus at the scene where two people where killed in a collision between the bus and two cars in Montreal, Tuesday, August 14, 2012. The accident between the city bus and two cars occurred late during rush hour at an intersection in an industrial park in the municipality of Dorval, near the Montreal airport. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes