‘I’m just glad to be alive’

Passengers were sleeping or fighting boredom when screams filled a packed bus on a dark, isolated section of a Manitoba highway early Friday morning.

Chad Cook, who was travelling from Winnipeg to Thompson with his pregnant partner and their two young children, said he looked up from his phone and made a dash for the steering wheel.

“They were all pointing to the front of the bus, and the bus driver’s head was on the wheel,” he said, noting the vehicle was starting to swerve.

“I had to lift his head with my left hand and grab the wheel with my right.”

The bus driver appeared to be unconscious, Cook said.

“I said, ‘Are you all right?’ He just looked at me like he was trying to wake up or something. It was pretty wild. It was a scary feeling,” he said.

The incident happened on Highway 6 about an hour south of Grand Rapids at about 12:30 a.m. The bus was operated by NCN Thompson Bus Lines, a division of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation in Nelson House.

Cook, 29, said he steered the northbound bus onto the shoulder and brought it to a halt after grabbing the wheel.

“It took a while to stop. We were swerving left and right, because I couldn’t get to the brake (pedal),” the Thompson resident said.

“I moved (the driver’s) foot and stepped on the brake.”

Cook estimated 50 people, including several children, were on board.

Other passengers or their family members shared details of the incident in social media posts. Some described Cook as a hero.

“I’m just glad to be alive,” he said.

Derek Hart, a member of NCN Thompson Bus Lines’ board of directors, said an investigation is underway. He expects staff to give a full report to the board.

“They are investigating the driver and reviewing log-in data. Providing safe northern transportation is our priority,” he said.

Federal law requires the use of an electronic logging device, Hart said. Data showed the bus was not in cruise-control mode at the time of the incident, he added.

A spokesman for Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure said the department had not received a report of the incident as of Monday.

“MTI’s investigations unit will followup with the bus company to verify that the incident took place,” the spokesman wrote in an email. “If the incident occurred, the department will ensure that the company is following an appropriate incident-management process to investigate the incident, and to identify and deal with its root causes.”

Cook, a nervous traveller and frequent bus passenger, and his six-year-old son were sitting directly behind the driver.

“I always have anxiety about that, so I sit in the front,” said the father, who was watching a movie on his phone and was wearing headphones when he heard other passengers scream.

It was his son’s first bus trip. The boy was in tears after the incident.

“I don’t think he’s going to go on a bus for a while,” said Cook, whose partner and four-year-old daughter were seated nearby.

The family was returning home after the couple’s daughter underwent dental surgery in Winnipeg.

The driver denied falling asleep, and claimed he “lost control” of the bus when it almost struck something on the highway, Cook said.

The driver wanted to continue the journey, but passengers said no. Cook said they waited about 2 1/2 hours for a new driver to arrive and take them the rest of the way to Thompson, about 760 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

“There was some arguing, which resulted in the driver stopping altogether. A supervisor got someone else to drive,” said Hart.

The trip usually takes between nine and 10 hours. Passengers previously complained to the Free Press about buses lacking heat and being bitterly cold in winter.

Most of the journey takes place on a stretch of undivided highway that has long been the subject of safety concerns.

The Safer Highway 6 Citizens Advisory Group has called for improvements, including more passing lanes, wider shoulders and rest stops, on the northern part of the route.

“It does not get the attention it deserves” despite the highway being a major corridor for the transport of goods and northern Manitoba’s primary route to and from Winnipeg, said group member and Thompson resident Volker Beckmann.

Cold temperatures, snow and ice make it a “very scary trip” in the winter, he said.

The group called on Manitoba to adopt International Road Assessment Program standards in a bid to make Highway 6 safer.

Beckmann is organizing an inaugural northern transportation symposium on behalf of the Thompson Chamber of Commerce.

Participants will look at multiple modes of transport, including road, ice road and air, to improve the network and connectivity, he said.

In its 2024 Budget, the Manitoba government promised to pilot two rest stops along a 500-kilometre section of Highway 6 between the Interlake community of Gypsumville and Thompson.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca