ALT-2 Transportation and Safety
Date: Wednesday, July 30, 2008Time: about 8:30 P.M. CTPlace: on the Trans-Canada Highway, about 20 miles west of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada.
A Greyhound bus rolled through the prairie twilight travelling from Edmonton to Winnipeg carrying 37 men, women and children. Everything seemed quiet; the wheels hummed soothingly as they carried the passengers across the flat, monotonous terrain.
Near the rear of the bus, a young man sat with his eyes closed, either asleep or engrossed in the music he was listening to, through earplugs.
Suddenly an terrible scream erupted. Passengers looked around to see the young man who had, moments before, seemed to be peacefully sleeping, being stabbed repeatedly. His seat mate had arisen, and without speaking a word, stood over his victim slashing him in the chest, neck, arms, head, anywhere he could hit, with a blood-covered Rambo-type knife.
After several seconds of shocked panic, the frantic passengers began a dash down the aisle of the bus, heading for the front door. The screaming stopped. Someone ,looking back, said the window was splattered with blood and the attacker seemed to be carving up the body of his victim.
As the others huddled in terrified clumps by the side of the road, three men tried to reenter the bus, to see if they could help the victim. Immediately, they saw it was too late. The attacker was decapitating the body, and making further gashes in the torso. When he stood, and began to run towards the would-be rescuers, they hurriedly left the bus, but held the doors shut so that escape was impossible.
It was then the attacker got the victim's head, strolled to the front of the bus, and calmly dropped it right in front of those who were preventing his exit. The assailant was described as surprisingly calm. "It was like he was at the beach or something. There was no rage in him. He wasn't swearing or cursing or anything. It was just like he was a robot or something.", said Garnet Caton, a fellow passenger, and one of the three holding the door.
Police cruisers arrived at the scene about 10 minutes after the attack began. The attacker began taunting police, standing at the bus window with the head in his hand. RCMP crisis negotiators communicated with the suspect for several hours. About 1:30 A.M. he tried to jump from a bus window. He was subdued and arrested.
Officers congratulated the three who had held him on the bus until police arrived. Had he escaped, the safety of the other passengers would have been at risk. As it was, it was a very traumatic experience. Some of the travellers report that they have been unable to sleep or eat since the incident occurred.
The government's Public Safety Minister, Stockwell Day, said the incident was probably one of a kind in Canadian history.
Greyhound spokeswoman, Abby Wambaugh, said the company is reviewing security on buses, but due to the rural nature of the network, airport-type security is not practical for bus travel.
In other words, not much will be done to prevent a similar espisode on another bus in the near future. Let's hope there are no copycat criminals even now planning a new, improved version of last week's crime.
For those who will be travelling on any mode of transportation this holiday season, the relevant message from this true-to-life report is, "Stay alert, stay alive!"
And above all, don't close your eyes!
