Runaway Blue Bus crashes into yard in Horseshoe Bay

A runaway Blue Bus crashed into the yard of a home in Horseshoe Bay Tuesday morning with two passengers onboard.

Fortunately there were no serious injuries.

West Vancouver Police got a report around 7:40 a.m. about a runaway bus that had crashed in the 6400 block of Nelson Avenue.

Just before the accident, the bus had reportedly been parked at a bus stop pointing downhill on Nelson Avenue with two passengers on board, according to Const. Nicole Braithwaite, spokesperson for West Vancouver Police Department.

When the bus driver got up to fix one of the doors on the bus, the bus began rolling slowly down the hill, Braithwaite said.

The motion caused the bus driver to fall out of the bus, and he wasn’t able to get back in, she said.

Meanwhile, the then-driverless bus rolled slowly through a hedge and into a yard at the corner of Nelson Avenue and Chatham Street and came to a complete stop at a retaining wall.

Both West Vancouver police and firefighters attended, along with ambulance paramedics.

Fortunately neither of the passengers were injured and walked out of the bus unassisted. The bus stopped before it hit the house.

The bus driver sustained minor injuries and was transported to hospital.

There was minimal damage to both the bus and the retaining wall, Braithwaite said.

Investigators haven’t yet determined what caused the bus to roll away down the hill, with both police and Blue Bus managers on scene Tuesday morning.

The bus has since been towed out of the yard and taken to the Blue Bus depot to be inspected.

District of West Vancouver crews were also replacing a stop sign damaged in the crash.

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