TORONTO — A bloody killing aboard a Greyhound bus in Manitoba that left one person beheaded had bus passengers elsewhere in the country shaken and concerned about a lack of bus security, although experts say there’s little that can be done.
Passengers on the Edmonton-to-Winnipeg bus Wednesday night described a completely unprovoked attack in which a man calmly stabbed his seatmate dozens of times, then set about methodically carving up the body. No one else was injured.
RCMP have not confirmed the victim was decapitated but say they have one person in custody. The victim was not identified.
"Hearing about this incident really worries me," said Donna Ryder, 56, who was waiting Thursday at the bus depot in Toronto.
"I’m in a wheelchair and what would I be able to do to defend myself? Probably nothing. So that’s really scary."
Ryder, who was heading to Kitchener, Ont., said buses are essentially the only way she can get around the province, as her wheelchair won’t fit on Via Rail trains. As it is her main option for travel, a lack of security is troubling, she said.
"I guess we’re going to have to go the airline way, maybe have a search and baggage check, X-ray maybe," she said.
"Really, I don’t know what you can do about security anymore."
Brian Bowey, 54, of Senlac, Sask., was in Edmonton waiting for a bus home. He said the killing in Manitoba, about 15 kilometres west of Portage la Prairie, had him on edge.
"After that going on, I’m kind of nervous getting on and off," he said.
Bowey suggested not letting passengers have any baggage on board buses.
"Maybe that would be an answer, to make everyone put everything underneath instead of allowing any carry-on," he said.
Some passengers said there should be security personnel riding on the buses or screening passengers and their bags, as in airports. But some experts say that’s just not realistic.
"Because of the nature of the industry, which is servicing a lot of small towns, with pickups right along the side of the highway, we’re not dealing with the same kind of a controlled environment like an airport," said David Carroll, the director of safety and maintenance with Motor Coach Canada.
"It would be extremely difficult and impractical to introduce screening devices, baggage checks, at all these various locations. I don’t think that’s the answer. . . . It just happened to be on a bus. It could just as easily happened in a theatre, in a bar, in a shopping centre."
Robin West, the Canadian director of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said the financial and manpower costs of any large-scale security measures such as security personnel on every bus or airport-style screening would not make it an attractive option for the bus companies.
"It’s brought to light (the question of) is there a possibility of security and screening and stuff? But I’ve got to be honest with you — I don’t know that there is, in most cases. I just don’t know how, feasibly, it could be done."
Instead, he suggested putting cameras on buses would go a long way toward deterring crime and providing passengers with some peace of mind.
Ian Jarvis, a contract bus driver in Toronto who does not work for Greyhound, said it would be hard to prevent such an isolated and extreme incident. Besides, he said, people may not be willing to pay for extra security.
"People use the bus because it’s cheap. It’s affordable. They’re not going to want to pay two or three people to stand there with a metal detector," he said.
