TTC looks at dash cams for buses, streetcars in wake of fatal accident
Review looking at recruitment, training and recertification comes three days after 14-year-old Amaria Diljohn was killed by a TTC bus.

thestar.com
Dec. 22, 2014
By Katrina Clarke

The TTC is considering installing dashboard cameras on buses and streetcars as part of a comprehensive review of driver recruitment and training in the wake of a tragic accident that left a teenage girl dead.

Monday’s announcement comes three days after Amaria Diljohn, 14, was killed in what police are calling a hit-and-run involving a TTC bus. TTC CEO Andy Byford said the review has been ongoing for up to four weeks, prompted by a spate of reports of bus drivers running red lights.

Amaria’s death, however, “reinforced” the need for a review, which Byford has now expedited.

“We were absolutely shocked by that accident on (Friday). I cannot express how badly I feel for the family of Amaria,” Byford told the Star Monday. “It’s bad enough at any time but to have it happen just before Christmas is just heartbreaking.”

Amaria was killed Friday evening at the intersection of Finch Ave. E. and Neilson Rd. while she was attempting to cross the street. The driver of the bus failed to remain at the scene. Police found Amaria without vital signs around 5:30 p.m.

The 27-year-old male driver has since turned himself in to police. As of Monday evening, police had not charged him. It is unclear if the bus driver was even aware he had struck the young girl.

A source told the Star the driver is a seven-year veteran of the TTC.

On Monday evening, police reconstructed the accident scene where Amaria died.

Her distraught mother, meanwhile, has begun to make burial plans.

“I don’t know what words to give you to describe her,” Crystal Diljohn said. “Just the best thing I ever had.”

She said she was not prepared to comment on news of the TTC’s review.

Amaria had been a passenger on the bus that later struck her, police told Diljohn.

Police also say there were six other passengers on the 133 Neilson bus with whom they would like to speak. TTC footage from the four cameras on the inside of the bus has also been turned over to police. They are also looking for witnesses who were not on the bus.

“We want to know everything,” Sgt. Murray Campbell of Toronto police traffic services told the Star.

Byford would not comment on the possibility the driver involved ran a red light, but the review comes in the wake of several reports of TTC vehicles disobeying stop lights in November and December, he said.

Byford said he was concerned by the reports and the review is a “pro-active approach” to safety.

According to a recent Star investigation, TTC vehicles have been involved in 18,000 collisions since 2009 - nearly 5,000 of which were deemed preventable by transit commission investigators.

Byford instructed the TTC’s chief safety officer to review TTC recruitment, training, supervision and recertification “just to see if there’s anything at all that we’re missing.” The TTC’s chief safety officer and chief service officer will report their findings to the board of directors early in the new year, likely February, Byford said.

Currently, TTC bus drivers receive 25 days of in-class and hands-on training, said TTC spokesman Brad Ross. The majority of the training takes place behind the wheel, either in a simulator or out on the road, said Ross.

Recertification - which includes a video review of an operator’s driving skills over a one- or two-day period - takes place every five years, he said.

As the TTC rolled out news of the review Monday, the flag flew at half-mast at Woburn Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, where Amaria was in Grade 9.

“She was a lovely, lovely girl. Very studious, happy, bubbly, great personality,” said Sheldeen Schoberg, Amaria’s English teacher, who spoke to media inside the school Monday.

Christina Mohan, Amaria’s geography teacher, called her a leader, said she sang in the choir and was “always, always smiling.”

“She was loved by many,” said Mohan.

Support staff was at the school on Monday to meet with the students who wanted to talk - around 20 had stopped by as of noon. Social workers may be back at the school in January.

The TTC union confirmed the driver who turned himself in is not currently working but would not say whether he has been suspended or is receiving pay.

“He’s obviously devastated and in shock,” said Manny Sforza, executive vice president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113.

Sforza said the union is “open” to discussing the use of dashboard cameras on TTC vehicles but that the union would have reservations if footage was used for disciplinary purposes.

Sforza said he thought the TTC already did a good job of training staff and that TTC operators have a “very good track record” of accidents, considering the distances vehicles travel. He said he wasn’t sure a review was necessary.

“I’m not saying it’s a bad idea ... I want to be sensitive to what happened last weekend,” he said, adding there is always room for improvement.