Bus driver’s kindness recognized

A city driver’s kindness in stopping her out-of-service bus for freezing cold commuters in a March snowstorm earned her an award of appreciation from OC Transpo yesterday.
At the height of last month’s snowstorm, Julie Lavergne — a 10-year OC Transpo bus operator — was returning to depot when she spotted two young girls shivering in the snow, waiting for the 94. Lavergne stopped and asked how long they’d been waiting. When they replied more than 20 minutes, she offered to drive them to Blair station.
But as she drove, she noticed more people waiting at almost every stop. She felt she had to pick them up, too.
“I just couldn’t leave them there in the storm. I’m not made that way,” she said.
Along the way, she also encountered an articulated bus blocking Innes Road, so Lavergne jumped out to help.
Despite being out-of-service, Lavergne managed to get a colleague’s bus unstuck and carry a full busload to Blair station. “(Passengers) were all happy. I made them laugh,” she said.
Several grateful passengers wrote OC Transpo to congratulate the driver for showing kindness, rather than playing by the rulebook.
“It was an out-of-service bus. She could have just gone back the depot, but she took the time to stop and help and the next thing you know she had a full bus,” said Bob Goody, the manager of transit operations.