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OTTAWA. — A double-decker bus crashed into a passenger train at a crossing south of Canada’s capital yesterday, killing at least five people, an official said.Ottawa fire department spokesman Marc Messier told broadcaster CTV that at least five bus passengers died and up to six others were injured.

“We had bodies and debris pretty much everywhere at the impact site,” CTV quoted Messier as saying.
Ottawa Police said it was investigating the collision. The Via Rail company operating the affected train on the Ottawa-to-Toronto line — on which traffic has been suspended — reported no fatalities. It was on its way from Montreal.

The OC Transpo bus was on its way downtown during the morning rush hour when the accident happened shortly before 8:48 am.
It happened in the Barrhaven, about 20 kilometres south of Ottawa, shortly before it was due to stop at a nearby station.

The injured were being transported to area hospitals, some of them by helicopter. The front of the bus mangled and sheered off and the train derailed.

Witnesses, meanwhile, recounted passengers being thrown from the bus.  Chad Mariage, on his way to work, was seated toward the back of the bus’s second level when the accident happened. He wasn’t injured, he said, calling himself “one of the lucky ones.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. — AFP.