Saskatoon Transit bus collides with school bus, crashes into tree outside daycare

Nearby residents say an intersection where a city bus and school bus collided on Thursday afternoon has been a worry for some time.

The crash between the two buses, both of which had passengers, happened at the intersection of Hazen Street and Alexandra Avenue, the Saskatoon Police Service said in a news release issued just before 4:30 p.m.

Jeff Dyer was at work when co-worker told him a bus had crashed in his neighbourhood. When he checked his security camera, he discovered the crash happened across the street from his home.

The footage, which Dyer shared with CBC, appears to show the school bus making a complete stop at the intersection. It then drives forward on Hazen Street before the collision with the city bus, which was travelling northwest on Alexandra Avenue.

The collision resulted in the city bus crashing into a tree on the property of a home that runs a daycare.

Dyer said the intersection would benefit from a larger stop sign.

"I think a lot of people use this route just to get through the neighborhood, and they do that quickly," he said.

"There's a lot of rolling stops at this stop sign, and sometimes no stops at all."

Kalem Edlund said his partner runs the daycare at the intersection, which had kids in basement at the time of the crash. Edlund said the large tree in his front yard most likely saved the home from being hit by the bus.

"We've seen near-collisions happen at this intersection multiple times," he said. "We get a lot of, I guess, honking — we're hearing from people almost hitting people because the signage, we feel, is not clear enough."

Edlund said they have written multiple letters to the city about the intersection. 

"They keep telling us that the collision rate is not high enough, so they're not going to make that change," said Edlund.

CBC has requested comment from the city.

A news release sent from the City of Saskatoon at 5:15 p.m. said Saskatoon Transit is co-operating with the police investigation.