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The City of Ottawa will have to pay more than $2 million in damages for a 2008 crash in which an OC Transpo bus T-boned an SUV, killing three people.

The SUV driver, Mark MacDonald, had been drinking and ran a red light, which led Judge Giovanna Toscano Roccamo to find him 80-per-cent responsible for the crash.

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But he and two of his friends, 19-year-olds Brianne Deschamps and Vanessa Crawford, were killed and MacDonald’s drinking largely invalidated his insurance policy.

Two other passengers, Ben Gardiner, then 20, and Monica Neacsu, then 19, were injured.

After the collision, Neacsu told the Citizen that the five friends had gone to the Carleton University graduate student bar, Mike’s Place, for karaoke, then to Grace O’Malley’s on Merivale Road.

Gardiner and his family sued the city, four pubs and MacDonald’s estate. Deschamps’ family also sued.

Because of how the law works in Ontario, if you’re partially responsible for damages, you can be forced to pay the full amount if all the other responsible parties are unable to pay anything. Toscano Roccamo found the city 20-per-cent responsible because the bus was going 66.5 km/h in a 60 zone and the bus driver had “a moment of inattention.”