It could happen to anyone. The use of public transit is widespread in the Ottawa area. We have all taken advantage of a fine network of buses instead of relying on personal vehicles to get around from time to time. When we were still in the active workforce, each of us regularly used public transit. When we listened to yesterday's morning news there was a shocking announcement that a double-decker Ottawa Transit bus had been involved in a collision with a Via Rail train.

It happened in a southern suburb of Ottawa at a rail crossing used countless times daily by road traffic. The crossing had working-order, high-quality flashing lights, sturdy barricades and sound and all had been activated at the time of the collision. Bus passengers report that they had been horrified to realize that the bus they were travelling on didn't appear to be stopping as it should before the barricade. They could clearly see the train before them. Why didn't the bus driver react?

They shouted desperately at him to "please stop". And he, seeming to be in a reverie of his own, appeared to suddenly realize imminent danger, applying the brakes to the bus, but much, much too late. The front end of bus was sheared off in the impact of the collision. One of the train car's wheels left the track. No passengers on the train were injured.

The bus driver was killed on impact. Also dead at the scene were four passengers. A fifth died in hospital. Eleven people had been critically injured and were rushed to area hospitals for immediate, emergency attention. Those on the train were asked to remain where they were for an hour before being allowed to disembark. Passengers from the bus fled their vehicle, and stood helplessly, grim-faced and disbelieving, many weeping their fear and grief.

Police and investigators from the Transportation Safety Board investigate a collision between a Via train and an OC Transpo commuter bus in Ottawa on September 18, 2013. (ERROL MCGIHON/QMI Agency)

First-responders were propelled directly to the scene, fire-fighters, police and paramedics, all trying to do their best to alleviate the situation which had gone well beyond the most fearfully imaginative considerations of such a disaster. Leaving the city to consider its decision years earlier, to bypass the potential of avoiding just such a scenario by building an elevated area that would eliminate the prospect of local traffic intersecting with rail lines, because of the exorbitant cost.

Wayne Cuddington/Postmedia NewsA Via Rail train and a city bus collided in Ottawa's west end 

Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. The front end of the bus was severely damaged.