1 person critically injured in Whitby collision involving self-driving shuttle

Durham police are investigating a crash in Whitby involving a self-driving shuttle that left one person with critical injuries.

Bryann Aguilar, CP24 Web Content Writer
@BryannAguilar
Last Updated Thursday, December 16, 2021 10:58PM EST

One person was critically injured when a self-driving shuttle bus crashed into a tree in Whitby Thursday afternoon.

Durham police said the collision happened in the area of Watson Street West and Victoria Street around 4 p.m and involved a Whitby Autonomous Vehicle Electric (WAVE) shuttle.

"There was one operator on board," Acting Sgt. George Tudos said. "No pedestrians or any passengers so that one person did suffer critical injuries."

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Durham police are investigating a crash in Whitby involving a self-driving shuttle bus.

The person was taken to a trauma centre, where he remains in life-threatening condition.

The cause of the crash is unknown.

"We are doing a parallel investigation with the Ministry of Labour to try to determine exactly what happened," Tudos said.

The WAVE bus hit the streets of Whitby last month as part of a pilot project “to learn about how autonomous technologies can contribute to safer, more sustainable and connected transit and traffic operations.”

The self-driving bus travels a six-kilometre route that begins and ends at Whitby GO Station, operating at a speed of no more than 20 kilometres per hour. It is equipped with radar and a 360-degree camera to scan for obstacles, allowing it to adjust and navigate around them.

According to Durham Region Transit, a trained safety attendant is on board all the time and can manually take control of the vehicle at any time if required.

- with files from CTV Toronto's Carol Charles