On Jan. 11, 2019, a driver lost control of a bus at Westboro Station and that tragedy left three people dead and a few dozen more injured.
It was there on Jan. 11, 2019, that rookie OC Transpo driver Aissatou Diallo lost control of a westbound Route 269 bus, which slammed into the platform and crashed into a snowbank, a rock-faced wall, another snowbank and the station’s steel canopy.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
Marcie Stevens, who lost both legs above the knees because of injuries from the crash, said she felt happy about the demolition. “It tells me that people in the city care about how the victims of this crash feel.” Jessica Service, who received a concussion, suffers from PTSD. She said she was glad the shelters were finally coming down, but it was also a reminder of her anger and frustration that they were not taken down sooner. The demolition is a point on a construction schedule, she said, and not a sign that the city acknowledged the pain of crash victims or recognized the dangers of the overhang.
Service started taking exposure therapy about four months after the crash in an attempt to get accustomed to a regular commute. The therapy made it necessary to take a bus past Westboro Station, an anxiety-provoking experience. But she has not used public transit since the LRT launched in September 2019 because she was anxious about the crush of people on the train.