An accident involving a Toronto Transit Commission bus early on the morning of Sunday, Nov. 9, 2014, has left one person dead in its aftermath. The bus was traveling through Etobicoke in western Toronto along Westhumber Boulevard near Kipling Avenue when it struck a car, killing one of the passengers in the car. The bus then allegedly smashed into a light pole and ran over a fire hydrant before veering into a parking lot and crashing headlong into the front of a local bank branch.
Police are investigating the cause of this unfortunate series of events, and one officer has stated that the traffic light may be to blame, though the exact cause remains unknown at this time. Whether the bus or the car ran a red light or the traffic signal was malfunctioning and showed green for both sides of the intersection is not known.
A witness who owns a nearby donut shop has reported that he saw the accident unfold from his store window, and immediately called for help once the bus collided with the front wall of the bank. He stated that he saw the driver of the car slumped over her steering wheel, and that she appeared to be unconscious following the accident.
Six passengers were allegedly on board the bus at the time of these multiple collisions, and more than one of them was taken away on a stretcher via ambulance to nearby Sunnybrook Hospital. Two of the injured parties remain in critical condition at this time. The intersection was shut down in the time following the accident, but all roadways were re-opened to commuters by the afternoon.
Police have made a public plea for witnesses to come forward and share what they saw of the crash, and they are reviewing video footage from both inside the bus itself and from area businesses’ security cameras in an effort to determine what exactly happened to cause the bus to wreak such havoc on and off the roadway. Damage to the bus and car were severe, and the damage to the property the bus struck was also extensive. The exact extent of damage to the bank building is not yet known.