Bus crashes into studio
The cause remains a mystery, but the effect is glaringly obvious.
An early morning accident involving two buses sent one of the vehicles crashing into a building at Lake Shore Blvd. and Cherry St.
It’s unclear what exactly led to the crash, which occurred near a bus depot, but fortunately no one was seriously injured.
The only people in the buses were the two drivers, and they were apparently just starting their shift for the day.
The driver of the bus that ended up smashed in the building, a recording studio called Cherry Beach Sound, was ejected, and only suffered minor head injuries.
The second driver, whose bus ended up across the road with only a few scrapes to its front end, was unhurt.
There was no one inside the building at the time.
One of the first priorities for fire officials and hazardous materials crews on scene was to transfer about 800 litres of fuel leaking from the wrecked Gray Line bus into the back of a pickup truck to avoid the possibility of a fire.
But once the fuel problem was solved, the challenge became what to do about the imperiled structure.
A good portion of the bus was inside the building, leaving a huge hole and cracks all around.
Engineers from the City of Toronto were on scene trying to figure out how to maintain the wall’s integrity when the bus is pulled out, and they’ve apparently decided that removing the vehicle won’t cause a collapse.
The worry was that if the building crumbled, millions of dollars of audio equipment inside – some of it brand new – could be destroyed.
The studio's owner is reportedly furious at what happened, especially when he found out that his insurance company will have to cover the cost of fixing the building and making sure the bus is removed safely.
Officials with Greyhound arrived on the scene midmorning to assess the damage.
"We don't know a lot. Our safety people are here. We're waiting to talk to the police," said Greyhound GM Lew Aldrich.
"We know one operator has been taken to hospital with minor injuries. Our concern is with his well-being and helping the police investigate and come to some conclusion as to actually what happened."
Part of the mystery is that no one actually called crews to the scene – they happened to see it as they were on their way to an accident on the Gardiner Expressway.
Police are now faced with trying to unravel that mystery, and figure out exactly what transpired.
As for the bus, workers planned to bring in heavy lifting equipment Friday afternoon to help dislodge the it from the building wall.
January 27, 2006
http://www.pulse24.com/News/Top_Sto...27-004/page.asp
My hubby and our neighbours rent the studio spaces there to jam.
This sucks for local musicians, and the people who run the place!
___________________
"WEMF is...." and I can't remember the rest because I didn't write it down.
- Blackness at WEMF 2007
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