When it's a Multi-Function Activity Vehicle that is being operated as an "Extra Curricular Activity Vehicle" according the New Brunswick Department of Education's own policies 512 and 513. Click to read the full text of Policy 512 and Policy 513 on the Government of New Brunswick Website.
Below are the relevent sections of Policies 512 and 513. We know from personal experience that it's difficult reading all the legal jargon - but if you can keep your eyes open long enough to make your way through it, you'll see that the Multi-Function Activity Vehicle is variously called an "Extra-Curricular Activity Vehicle" or a "Student Activity Vehicle" and according to the very strict legal definitions that the administrators at the Department of Education and Transportation like to abide by, neither one of those is a "bus".
Policy 512 Definition of Extra-Curricular Activity Vehicle
Extra-curricular activity vehicle is a motor vehicle acquired by or on behalf of a school or a student council and registered in the name of the Province for the purpose of transporting students to and from off-site school related extra-curricular activities. An extra-curricular activity vehicle is not considered a school vehicle for the purposes of the Pupil Transportation Regulation.
Policy 513
Definitions
Bus as defined in the Pupil Transportation Regulation means any motor vehicle designed for carrying ten or more passengers and used for the transportation of persons. In this policy, this definition excludes 15 passengers vans.
Extra-curricular activity vehicle is a motor vehicle acquired by or on behalf of a school or a student council and registered in the name of the Province for the purpose of transporting students to and from off-site school related extra-curricular activities. An extra-curricular activity vehicle is not considered a school vehicle for the purposes of the Pupil Transportation Regulation.
Private vehicle is a motor vehicle not owned or leased by the Province, and that is not operated under a conveyance contract as defined in the Pupil Transportation Regulation.
School Bus as defined in the Pupil Transportation Regulation means a school vehicle that is a bus, is painted national school bus yellow and is equipped with a warning system.
School vehicle, as defined in the Pupil Transportation Regulation means a motor vehicle operated by a school district or under a conveyance contract for the conveyance of pupils in the public school system and excludes motor vehicles in a public transit system.
The Department of Education Provincial Policy indicates in Policy 513
Section 3.0
Definitions
Winter tire is a tire that meets the Transport Canada winter snow tire designation, with the inscribed peaked mountain with a snowflake pictograph on the tire sidewall, for passenger vehicles, SUV and light trucks. For buses, winter tire means a combination of tires that are specifically designed for winter driving conditions (i.e. ribbed front tires and traction tires on the rear)
Section 6.8 Vehicles Standards
Buses must meet the following requirements
(b) are equipped with winter tires between November 1 and April 30
Education Minister Roland Hache Broke His Promise
On July 23, 2009, New Brunswick's Minister of Education Roland Hache had a press conference giving us the government response to the Coroners Jury recommendation into the death of our sons. There were 24 recommendations, and #13 was about tires.
Recommendation # 13
All vehicles transporting students must have winter tires.
The Government response was:
This is a requirement in Policy 513 and will continue to be mandated. All vehicles which have a winter tire (snowflake insignia on the tire sidewall) available from tire manufacturers will be fitted with winter tires on all wheels from Nov 1 to April 30 annually. Vehicles with a weight classification for which winter tires are not available will be fitted with traction tires on the drive axles and steering tires on the steering axle as per the school bus tire policy.
So Is the MFAV a Bus or a Extra Curricular Activity Vehicle?
After reading Policy 513 we know that the 21 passenger MFAV is an Extra-curricular Activity Vehicle and is NOT a school vehicle for the purposes of the Pupil Transportation Regulation.
Further, the 21 passenger MFAV is new to the Department of Education and Transportation even though other schools used them for years before the 15 passenger vans were banned. Until then, the MFAVs used by schools in New Brunswick had winter tires all around. But now, because the MFAV are registered in the name of the Province, they have to use all seasons because it's "Policy".
Problem is, since the MFAV is not a "bus" , it doesn't fall under the Pupil Transportation Regulations, which prevents the Department of Education from using non-buses to transport children to extra-curricular events without strict enforcement of maintenance and higher tire standards.
Tell the Government Spin Doctors and Bureacrats to Stop Calling MFAVs Buses
So will someone please tell the Director of Communications for Education, Valerie Kilfoil, and Gary Spencer at the Department of Transportation to stop describing the Multi-Function Activity Vehicles to the media, to Goodyear and Michelin Tires as "buses" because the MFAVs are NOT buses.
We quote Gary Spencer in a November 24, 2009 letter to Goodyear Tires :
Recently the Province of New Brunswick has taken ownership of some twenty passenger buses which are rear wheel drive construction utilizing one ton chassis'. This size of bus had not previously been utilized in our fleet and our standard school bus tire policy was applied, that is ribbed/steering tires on the steering axle and winter or traction tires on the drive axle.
Calls MFAVs a "Bus" Ten Times
Read Gary Spencer's original letter to GoodYear HERE and you'll see that he uses the word "bus" no less than 10 - that's TEN - times! He also admits that since the Department of Transportation didn't have a policy for these "buses" it just applied the policy for yellow school buses. Isn't that convenient?
Then of course, there is Valerie Kilfoil, who has apparently become an expert in tires overnight, in an interview she did with the Moncton Times Transcript on January 2. In that article, she uses the word "bus" so many times we lost track of it. Yet, she failed to mention that according to her own Department's policies, MFAVs are not buses and neither are they included in the Pupil Transportation Regulations, providing another clean getaway for government bureaucrats in the Department of Education and Transportation should any future "accidents" occur to students travelling in these MFAVs. We predict "We were just following orders" will be their refrain.
Hair Splitting or Telling the Truth?
Now some people might think we're just splitting hairs, but when it came to defending themselves at the Coroners Inquest last May, it was policies, regulations and rules like 512 and 513 which the bureaucrats and administrators at the Department of Education and Transportation, not to mention a few other witnesses, used to protect themselves from any liability in the deaths of our children.
"We were just following policy" or "It was in the regulations" were oft-repeated along with "It wasn't my job" and "Not my responsibility". The one that made us the most angry? "I don't remember." To read about the Coroners Inquest in May, click here.
The problem with all this "hair-splitting" is if the MFAV is NOT a "school bus", the Department of Education doesn't have to pay attention to all those annoying rules about maintenance and upkeep of its fleet and they certainly don't have to enforce policies about tire standards that would force them to use winter tires on the front of the MFAVs.
People will be shocked to find out that at this very moment, the Department of Education and the Department of Transportation actually do not have any tire policies when it comes to the new fleet of Multi Function Activity Vehicles that came into use after the 15 passenger vans were banned following our sons' deaths. They just took the old one for Yellow School Buses (which ARE buses by the way) and applied them to the MFAVs, which are NOT buses, according to their very own definition. You figure.
They are operating in a vacuum, preferring to fall back on conjecture and opinion than to forge ahead with scientific testing of the MFAV tires that we have organized for them for FREE in Michigan.
They didn't learn a thing from the death of ours sons. They're still a bunch of amateurs, sloppy, buck-passing and irresponsible when it comes to transportation safety.
Unfortunately, it's the school children who are being driven to extra-curricular events who are going to pay the price, just like our sons did.
Why the Department of Education and Transportation won't agree to participate in testing in Michigan is beyond us. They shouldn't be surprised to be criticized for not taking advantage of an opportunity to have these vehicles tested for FREE, at no cost to the taxpayer.
