Coquitlam RCMP investigators have found no evidence that a suspicious substance was responsible for making a bus driver ill and led to the shut down of the Coquitlam Station transit exchange Friday afternoon.
Police boarded the bus shortly after the incident and tested for hazardous materials. When none were found the scene was released and bus service was returned to normal.
"We don't know," said RCMP Cpl. Jamie Chung. "Whatever it was, it was not hazardous."
Reports that a suspicious substance had made a bus driver and several passengers ill prompted TransLink to shut down the bus loop shortly after noon on Friday.
Bus passengers were still able to access their buses at temporary stops that were put up around the bus loop and West Coast Express riders were not affected by the incident, according to TransLink spokesperson Drew Snider.
Snider said two people got off the bus at the Coquitlam loop and told the 97B line driver they felt ill. He continued his way to Lougheed station and upon his arrival back to Coquitlam began to feel sick, too, and collapsed.
He wasn't taken to hospital, however, and Snider said he was up and walking around later in the day.
The haz mat team set up a tent to shower people who may have been affected by the substance but Snider said the team and TransLink took an "abundance of caution" in the situation and no one else appeared to have been affected.
gmckenna@tricitynews.com
