On Thursday, 15 October, around 1:10 p.m., a Calgary Transit bus was heading north on Saddletowne Circle N.E., at 80 Avenue. Police say it struck a truck. The truck moved into the next lane, sideswiped an SUV, then hit the rear of a box truck. The bus kept going, hit a sedan, pushed it through the intersection. The sedan hit another truck. The bus hit the rear of a second transit bus. The second bus’s natural-gas tanks ignited. Within seconds the fire grew inside the cabin. Three passengers on the second bus died. The driver of the second bus got out. The driver of the first was taken to hospital with life-altering injuries. Other drivers: unhurt or minor injuries. Sixteen people, minor injuries, including an officer now recovering at home.

Police later updated: the three dead have been identified, families notified. We are not naming them. Cause is open. “It is too early to determine whether impairment, speed or distraction contributed. All possible factors remain under investigation.” Case: CA26474612/5336. Anyone who saw it is pointed to the Victim Assistance Support Team.

Firefighters stretched hoses at once, called more resources, declared a mass-casualty incident. Alex Kwan, of Calgary Fire: “Many of us in the industry are struck with disbelief. This is not something any of us have seen before.” They then worked with specialists so the compressed gas was vented, without risk to the street. The bus that burned ran on compressed natural gas. Calgary Transit has 347 such vehicles. The agency said it would sit with investigators and review CNG operations, if more measures are needed.

Canadian Press wrote that an officer helped pull a child from the burning bus. Police, in the statement, put that officer among the 16 with minor injuries, at home. Mike Mahar, president of ATU Local 583, said he did not recall a fire like this. Mayor Jeromy Farkas asked for a full investigation and turned to the families.

Saddle Ridge is Calgary’s north-east, a transit road, not an empty highway. Two buses, a chain of cars, a CNG tank. That is the skeleton. The rest — why the first bus hit the truck, whether it braked, whether it was distracted — is not in the file as fact. It is in the investigation.

Three people died on a bus. One driver is badly hurt. One officer is home. The city has a CNG fleet it will reread. Until the report, it is not a lesson. It is a crash, Thursday afternoon, on Saddletowne Circle.

Image: St Clair Witch, a Calgary Transit bus at Saddletowne station, 29 September 2023, CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The photograph shows a bus at the terminus, not Thursday’s wreck.

Sources consulted: Three deceased following multi-vehicle collision — Calgary Police Service; Police share new information about fatal Saddle Ridge bus fire — Calgary Herald.