· CBC News · Sep 22, 2021
The OC Transpo driver in the fatal Westboro bus crash in 2019 has been found not guilty of all 38 dangerous driving charges.
Aissatou Diallo, 44, had faced three counts of dangerous driving causing death and 35 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
The charges stemmed from a collision during an afternoon commute on Jan. 11, 2019 when the double-decker OC Transpo bus she was driving slammed into a bus shelter awning, which cut into the upper level.
Passengers Anja Van Beek, Judy Booth and Bruce Thomlinson were killed and many more were injured.
Justice Matthew Webber delivered his decision in the judge-alone trial Wednesday at the Ottawa courthouse. The trial ran from March to June with restrictions on who could be in the courtroom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Higher duty of care, Crown argued
The Crown and defence presented arguments based on video taken by OC Transpo cameras at the Westboro station, onboard video from the bus, and data recordings from the transit agency’s computer systems.
Witness testimony included passengers who travelled on both levels of the double-decker bus that day, as well as OC Transpo trainers and maintenance staff.
Asssitant Crown attorneys Dallas Mack and Louise Tansey said Diallo’s training as a professional driver meant she had a higher duty of care, which they argued could be an aggravating factor in the case. They also argued the double-decker bus was in excellent working condition on the day of the collision.
The Crown argued Diallo failed to act to prevent or mitigate the collision.
Consider mitigating factors, defence said
Defence lawyers Fady Mansour and Solomon Friedman argued there were several mitigating factors that helped explain why the bus left the roadway, and why Diallo couldn’t regain control.
The defence presented the report of a collision reconstruction expert who pointed to the angle of the sun, unclear lane markings from an old construction detour, and the rapid succession of collisions once the bus left the roadway and travelled through the gutter and shoulder on the way to the station.
The gutter had previously been paved as part of a 2018 construction detour but had ice and snow in it at the time of the collision, court heard.
The Crown did not call the lead police investigator in the case to testify, nor did it present the police collision reconstruction report.
The City of Ottawa has accepted civil liability for the collision and had paid out $5 million to victims’ families two years after the crash.
With files from Shaamini Yogaretnam
Source: CBC News