Family members of two people who died in a 2019 Ottawa bus crash spoke about their grief at the start of a coroner's inquest Wednesday, with one woman telling the jury her family is still searching for answers.
The inquest is examining the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Judy Booth, Bruce Thomlinson and Anthonia Van Beek.
All three died after a double-decker bus operated by OC Transpo hopped a curb and struck a shelter at the Westboro transit station on Jan. 11, 2019. Nearly two dozen others were injured in the crash as the shelter's awning carved into the upper level of the bus and crushed a number of seats.
Judy Booth's daughter Karen Benvie said the loss has left her family with unanswered questions and unbearable grief.
"Her absence is felt every day in the silence where her laughter used to be and in the spaces where her presence once brought warmth and light," Benvie said, describing her 57-year-old mother as "a compassionate and kind-hearted woman."
Benvie said her family is participating in the inquest to understand the circumstances of her mother's death and to honour her memory.
The jury also heard from 56-year-old Bruce Thomlinson's wife Elaine, who remembered him as a "loyal and fiercely dedicated loving husband, father, brother, friend and colleague."
The OC Transpo bus driver, Aissatou Diallo, was acquitted of all criminal charges in the case in 2021.
The inquest jury heard Wednesday that Diallo was cleared to drive buses again just one week before the 2019 crash, after being involved in another collision a month earlier and undergoing retraining.
Inquest counsel Alessandra Hollands read a report stating that the root cause of the previous collision "was determined to be operator error and failure to adjust speed to road conditions."
The jury also heard about a Transport Canada report into the 2019 crash, which found that the bus was travelling between 58 to 60 kilometres an hour when it left the roadway, before striking a rock cut and then the overhead canopy at the transit station.
Inquest counsel Peter Napier said the report found that "no braking took place after the bus left the roadway" and that it took the bus eight seconds to come to a rest.
"An Ontario Ministry of Transportation enforcement officer examined bus 8155 at the collision scene and later at the storage location. No mechanical deficiencies were observed with the steering or the braking system," he said.
The inquest heard that the bus had passed an annual inspection in August 2018 and that another bus operator who drove it on a morning route the day of the collision did not report any issues.
Dr. Louise McNaughton-Filion, a regional supervising coroner, said the inquest will hear from multiple witnesses and the jury can make recommendations at the end, aimed at preventing similar deaths in the future.
Coroner's inquest juries do not assign blame or make findings of legal responsibility in a case.
Karen Benvie said her family wants to ensure that Judy Booth's "story is heard, her life remembered."
She said her mother worked as a public officer in several federal departments until she retired as the director of access to information and privacy at the National Capital Commission, and was also a tenor drummer in several pipe bands in Ottawa.
Elaine Thomlinson, meanwhile, said her "selfless" husband collected scrap bicycles "just so he could fix neighbourhood children's bikes when needed or piece a bicycle together for a child in the neighbourhood that didn't have one and perhaps couldn't afford one."
The inquest is expected to last 21 days.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2025.
Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press
