Partially submerged Acadian bus to be removed this morning print this article
ERIN POTTIE
The Cape Breton Post
BADDECK INLET — An Acadian bus that crashed into the frigid Baddeck River, Tuesday night will be removed from the water this morning.
Two cranes are scheduled to be in position from 8 a.m. until 11 a.m. near the Baddeck Inlet Bridge, where the bus entered the water, and detours will be in place to direct traffic during the removal.
RCMP are advising cars and small trucks will be detoured through the Old Margaree Road, bypassing the accident site. The detour will be marked with Department of Transportation signage.
Larger trucks cannot access that detour because of weight restrictions on a bridge along the route. Trucks under 41,500 kilograms are being directed to use Route 4 on the other side of the Bras d’Or Lakes, or Route 223 through Iona.
At about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, the bus crossed an oncoming lane and left the road carrying five passengers and a driver.
Miraculously all six people — the bus driver and five passengers — were reported to be in good condition and taken to hospital with minor injuries.
“Obviously the weather was a major contributing factor,” said Staff Sgt. Archie Thompson of Baddeck RCMP. “High winds, the freezing rain, the bridge was very slippery and it’s still under investigation.”
An RCMP reconstructionist attended the scene of the accident and will be doing an examination of the bus to rule out any mechanical flaws.
At the time of the crash the vehicle was travelling eastbound toward Sydney on Highway 105. It later careened through a steel and concrete railing, dropping approximately five metres to the river below.
Volunteer firefighters from the Baddeck department were attending an annual meeting when they received the 911 call. About 20 firefighters arrived at the scene, five minutes after the crash happened. Firefighters say those on the bus had already started removing the front windows of the bus before firefighters arrived.
“The front two wheels were partially submerged in water,” said fire Chief Ernest Roberts. “We put ladders out and were able to walk on the ladders across the open water toward the front of the bus to get them out.”
He said those on the bus were cold and wet, some had hypothermia and most were shaken up.
“There’s no question that they are very, very fortunate. It was a miserable night, the roads were very, very poor. It was extremely windy, they were in a very precarious situation,” Roberts said.
Once reached by firefighters, the travellers were escorted one-by-one across two ladders in front of the bus and then up a ladder taking them from the ice to the top of the bridge. Some of accident victims were placed in a paramedic’s truck while others stayed in the fire trucks before they were taken to Baddeck hospital by ambulance. Later one passenger was transported to Cape Breton Regional Hospital in Sydney for treatment.
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