Two women waiting at a Winnipeg bus shelter escaped serious harm when a city transit bus slammed into the structure, shattering glass and sending debris flying.
Eyewitness Accounts of the Collision
Audrey Paupanakis and her friend Karalee Linklater sat in the shelter near Portage Avenue and Fort Street around 12:05 p.m. on Tuesday, awaiting Paupanakis’s dentist appointment downtown.
“I turned around; all I heard was a big boom,” Paupanakis recounted. “I went forward and smashed against the other side of the bus shack.”
The bus clipped the glass panel behind them, struck their backs, and broke the window. “That’s when I looked back, and there’s a big bus right beside me, the whole transit bus,” Linklater said.
Glass shards cut their hands as fragments rained down. Witnesses report the driver fled the scene without stopping. “He didn’t even stop, he didn’t stop to come and check on us,” Paupanakis added during a return visit to the site on Wednesday. “I don’t even want to look at it. I seen my life go before my eyes when this happened.”
Transit Response and Investigation
Winnipeg Transit received a reports the operator confirming contact with the shelter at the specified location and time, matching the women’s timeline.
Initial reports indicated no injuries, but a follow-up noted a woman struck by falling glass. A transit inspector arrived at the scene, though the women had already departed for medical care.
Officials continue an internal probe into the incident. A spokesperson for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 withheld comment pending the ongoing investigation.
Treatment and Aftermath
Paupanakis and Linklater sought treatment at St. Boniface Hospital’s emergency room for cuts on their hands from the broken glass. “When we got to the hospital she noticed that there was glass still in my hoodie. I still have glass particles on my jacket, I have to shake it off,” Paupanakis said.
Linklater filed a police report Wednesday, and officers advised her to submit a claim to Manitoba Public Insurance, which she has done.
The women now urge transit riders to stay vigilant at shelters. “I wasn’t even paying attention,” Paupanakis reflected. “But now since that happened, I’ve got eyes behind my head.”
