Louise Rogers says she cannot remember anything from the time she drove her school bus on to Crowchild Trail until after she was involved in a fatal crash with a parked truck.
Rogers, 42, driving for Third Academy International private school, told Alberta Solicitor General lawyer Nancy McCurdy at a fatality inquiry she was not using a phone or any other electronic device at the time of the crash in the 1500 block of Crowchild Trail S.W. on Oct. 18, 2007.
She had already picked up all 11 students and was on her way to the school when the crash occurred about 8:26 a.m.
However, when asked by provincial court Judge Bruce Fraser how she could be sure she wasn't using the phone or listening to music when she can't remember anything else, a distraught Rogers replied: "I'm sure I'd remember if I was on a cellphone. I don't know. I don't remember what happened."
She had admitted earlier, though, that she had one earphone from an IPod in her hijab, but it was not in her ear.
Rogers, who subsequently pleaded guilty to careless driving and fined $2,000 relating to the crash that killed Kathelynn Occena, 9, and injured her sister Julia, 7, and other children, told Fraser she didn't initially realize what had happened.
"I remember hitting the truck. I remember I didn't know what I hit and kept going and hit the pole," a sobbing Rogers replied when asked what was her first post-crash memory. "After that, I was like, Oh My God, and I asked if the kids were OK. I thought, what did I do?"
She said she did not take any evasive action, because she didn't realize at first what she had struck.
A police investigator earlier testified Rogers told her she may have fallen asleep. When asked by McCurdy, she said it could be true, but she has no recollection.
Rogers told the inquiry she was taking an anti-depressant and sleeping aid in October 2007, and had attempted suicide the previous month.
But she said she had not taken either of the drugs the morning of the fatal collision.
In fact, she said, she was in a very good mood when she went to work that day. She told her lawyer Frank Tosto she had converted to Islam the previous June and had booked a trip to Morocco for December.
Rogers agreed her boss Arlene Wal dn e r, transportation manager at Third Academy, had phoned to wake her up that fateful morning, at her request, and asked her if she was OK to drive. She said she told Waldner, "yes."
When asked if she had also told her boss about her ongoing mental health issues including hospital stays, she said she had not done so when she was first hired, but did later on.
But, she added, she didn't believe she had told her about her attempted suicide by an overdose of medication the month before the crash.
Rogers, who had begun driving with the school in November 2004, also noted she was given very little training or orientation before being hired.
She said Waldner went with her on a dry run so she could learn her route, but she did not take a prescribed defensive driving course or anything else.
Each subsequent school season she drove for the school, Rogers said, there was virtually no training. Drivers were just notified shortly before the school year and told of their routes by letter, she said.
"When I first started, I went through the dry run with Arlene, but no extensive training. The following years, there was not much training except the odd bus meeting."
When asked if she was even aware of a school bus drivers' professional growth plan, she said she hadn't heard of it.
It was not until May 2007, when she asked for stress leave for family issues and stress of having a large route -- 19 children -- that she told Waldner of personal mental health issues.
After seeing a school psychologist, she said she felt better and returned to work until the end of the school year.
However, she added, she was also having difficulties in her marriage in June 2007 and moved out of the family home in July 2007. By the time of the crash, however, she said she was back with her husband and living at home.
However, she said she spent time in the psychiatric ward of a city hospital in September that year after trying to take her own life.
Rogers said she told Waldner about her hospital stay, although "I don't recall if she knew it was exactly a suicide attempt."
Still, she continued to drive for another month without any further training or treatment other than the two medications through her family doctor, she said.
Rogers said she could not remember ever having received any complaints about her driving while at Third Academy, except once for using a cellphone while driving.
dslade@theherald.canwest.com
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/School+driver+attempted+suicide+month+before+crash/2743524/story.html#ixzz0sMf7UB85
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