'This is such a tragedy': DARTS workers gather to mourn colleague killed in Main Street crash
'She was more than our coworker. She was family,' said Monica Rumble
A DARTS driver paced along Main Street West in Hamilton Saturday morning, retracing the path of destruction left by a car that mounted the sidewalk and killed one of her coworkers just a few days before.
The woman said she was trying to understand how the crash could have happened — how a person standing on the sidewalk next to a parked bus could have been hit.
A short walk away, a crowd of DARTS operators and CUPE Local 5167 members in bright yellow vest blocked off a lane of traffic, holding signs begging people to slow down, while others turned a light post into a tower of flowers, cards and messages of mourning.
The demonstration of love and remembrance was in honour of Sherri D'Amour, who union members and fellow drivers identified as the 49-year-old who died while picking up a passenger Thursday afternoon.
"Sherri loved life, her job and was always ready to help with everything," said Marlene Blair, who said the two had rolled down their windows to speak at stoplights on Wellington Street North that very morning.
"She was a friend, coworker and was taken from us way too early," she said. Blair prayed as the group bowed their heads. "Sherri you will always be remembered in our hearts."
One person handed out Kleenex as employees cried and held each other.
"It was very sudden," said Monica Rumble, the DARTS unit vice president.
"She was more than our coworker. She was family," Rumble added, fighting tears. "We're a very tight-knit group of operators."
"To Sherri," the crowd shouted.
'Everybody thinks it could have been them'
Mark Mindorff, executive director of DARTS, added a red flower to the memorial and remembered bumping into D'Amour on a city bus no so long ago.
"I'm one of your drivers," he recalled her saying.
"She was a very much by-the-book driver," said Mindorff.
"I know everybody thinks it could have been them picking that passenger up."
Police say the collision happened around 2 p.m. when a 75-year-old woman behind the wheel of a black Honda Civic jumped the curb, crashed into a building and light poles before hitting a DARTS driver who had stopped for a passenger.
The driver of the car was not injured, according to investigators. Police said they have ruled out impairment. The woman was arrested but has since been released while the investigation continues.
The crash marked the city's 11th traffic fatality of 2022 — 10 of which were pedestrians. The incident prompted several councillors to say they were working "on a motion to address these killer streets."
John-Paul Danko, councillor for Ward 8, said Saturday on Twitter: "We know the current one-way configuration of Main & King is not safe. We know what the solutions are. We must act now."
The Ministry of Labour initially said it had sent two inspectors to the scene near Locke Street South after it had been notified a worker had been hit.
But in a statement to CBC on Friday, the ministry said D'Amour's death had been deemed a motor vehicle accident, not a workplace fatality under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
"The ministry has a role in reviewing worker training and ensuring the employer submits a written notice of the circumstances of the occurrence," a spokesperson added when asked whether it was still involved in the investigation.
The ministry said any further questions about the crash should be directed to police.
Some of those gathered along the street Saturday morning questioned that.
"Ministry of Labour this was a workplace fatality," was written in big, black letters on a large, cardboard sign held facing traffic.
Philip Coburn, the former general manager of DARTS, said D'Amour was one of his last hires before he left the non-profit that provides accessible transit in 2003.
"She really, really cared about the people and that's one of the things I noticed about her right off," he said.
Coburn described traffic conditions in Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area as "horrendous," pointing to people honking impatiently as the mourners blocking off a lane of traffic.
"I'm shocked that she was hit on the sidewalk. That's incredible," he said. "I'm lost for words. I just don't know."
There were so many flowers that Jay Hunter, CUPE 5167's president, had to climb a ladder to find space to place them all.
"We want to remember our good friend, our coworker and our union sister today," he told crowd.
The drivers gathered said it had been D'Amour's birthday just one day before she was killed. She always took it off to celebrate.
"She will be sadly missed," said Rumble, thanking those who had gathered to make sure D'Amour knew she was in their thoughts. "This is such a tragedy."