The RCMP logo is seen outside Royal Canadian Mounted Police "E" Division Headquarters, in Surrey, B.C., on Friday April 13, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
BURNABY, B.C. – Adrian Striga says that if he had slept in Thursday morning, it could have cost him his life.
Instead, the carpenter was at work when a school bus crashed through the window of his Burnaby apartment and into his empty bedroom just before 8 a.m.
“I was at work and I got a call from one of the other neighbours and there’s a bus through the house, literally through my room where I sleep,” he said.
Eleven people were sent to hospital and are in stable condition after the crash, BC Emergency Health Services said in a statement.
A spokesman for Burnaby RCMP says there were “about a dozen kids on the bus.”
Striga said there are three apartments in the basement of the home at the corner of Canada Way and 16th Avenue.
Photos posted on social media show a 24-seat bus that appears to have smashed through a low brick wall then through the front wall and windows of the home.
Standing outside on Thursday, Striga said he was feeling emotional and upset as police waited for an engineer to arrive before the bus could be pulled out.
“I don’t even know if I’m going have a place to stay. I don’t have renters’ insurance and the owner’s insurance doesn’t cover for a hotel for me to stay (at),” he said.
He said his family has already launched an online fundraising campaign to help him.
“I don’t even know what to think right now. The more I talk about it, the more reality is hitting,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2023.
