A city bus in Ottawa, Canada drove through a railroad barrier Wednesday morning, crashing into an oncoming train and killing six.
The OC Transpo bus was headed for downtown Ottawa at around 9 a.m. Wednesday morning when it collided with Via Train 51. The front of the bus was completely torn away by the impact and the Via train’s locomotive and one of its passenger cars were both derailed.
The driver of the bus was one of five people pronounced dead at the scene, according to CBS Canada. One other person was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital from their injuries.
More than 30 passengers were injured in the crash with eight of the passengers reportedly in critical condition as of Wednesday night. All the injured passengers were riding the bus.
Multiple witnesses said that the bus failed to stop at the barrier that should have separated it from the oncoming commuter train.
"People started screaming, 'Stop! Stop!' because they could see the train coming down the track," said witness Tanner Trepanier, who was sitting in the upper level of the double-decker bus.
Other witnesses spoke of the horrors that they witnessed during the tragic crash.
“It was crazy. People were flying. I saw limbs,” another bus passenger, Romi Gupta, told the Houston Chronicle.
Officials say that it could take months to try and piece together exactly what happened Wednesday morning for the crash to have taken place. They said retrieving the black box from the train will help, but the investigation is ongoing.