Expert says compressed natural gas buses are ‘extremely safe’ after fatal Calgary chain-reaction crash

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A transportation research expert says compressed natural gas buses are still considered “extremely safe” after a fatal crash in Calgary involving a bus powered by compressed natural gas that killed three people.

Calgary police said a chain-reaction crash occurred when a transit bus hit several vehicles before rear-ending a parked bus, igniting an explosion that also left more than a dozen others injured. Police said an officer was taken to hospital with injuries after running toward a bus as fire erupted.

The CNG-powered bus involved in the crash was one of the 12-metre-long vehicles, according to the expert Josipa Petrunic, president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC). Petrunic said there are about 1,000 compressed natural gas buses operating in Canada and that there are 958 CNG buses in Ontario, Alberta and B.C., based on a CUTRIC database report.

Petrunic said compressed natural gas bus technology includes safety measures intended to manage leakage and reduce fire risk, and that the tanks are also designed to withstand heavy impacts. She said the main safety concern with public transit is usually the lack of seatbelts.

“It’s considered extremely safe technology, so we all need to find out what happened to create an unsafe environment in a crash situation,” Petrunic said.

A spokesperson from Nova Bus said the company manufactures the bus that was rear-ended and that it is in contact with Calgary Transit. The spokesperson said it was “premature to speculate on the cause before a thorough investigation has been completed,” adding that “Safety remains Nova Bus’s highest priority, and we are offering our full cooperation to Calgary Transit and the relevant authorities as they work to establish the facts.”

Petrunic said transit bus manufacturers typically complete Altoona testing, a certification process meant to assess durability and reliability before a model is added to a fleet. She said Calgary Transit has nearly 250 CNG buses, representing about 20 per cent of its fleet, and that the city plans to buy about 150 more this year to replace diesel buses.

As investigators continue to look into what led to the crash, Petrunic said industry leaders will examine the factors that contributed to “this cataclysmic event to occur leading to death,” and she added: “A transit crash shouldn’t result in passenger deaths.”