Grand Rapids Police says a train collided with a Rapid bus Monday.
It happened shortly after noon, south of the intersection of Kalamazoo Avenue and Burton.
Police say a city bus wasn’t able to get over the railroad crossing because of ice. The arms came down, and the driver of the bus saw the train coming. He evacuated everyone on board, about four or five people, and signaled the train to stop.
The train was able to slow down, and struck the bus while it was traveling about 4 MPH.
No one was injured in the crash.
Bill Kirk, the business and affairs specialist at the Rapid, said the drivers train for various situations and follow protocols. While a train collision is not specifically one of those, the driver did exactly what he was supposed to do.
"They’re trained to drive in adverse weather conditions here in Michigan, stuff like this, they follow all the steps," said Kirk. "If there was not a train coming, we would have kept everybody on board until we could get a bus dispatched. But because a train was coming, we wanted to get everybody off the bus. It’s really a great example of one of our operators following their training, doing the right thing, and keeping everybody safe."
The bus is now back at The Rapid shop. It has significant damage to the back end and rear door.
Kirk said he has heard this particular railroad crossing can be difficult to pass in snowy and icy conditions like Monday, so the drivers will take extra precaution.
See the bus footage of the incident:
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