Nanaimo-Cowichan MP Jean Crowder has joined the fight to ban 15-passenger vans, which have been outlawed for school use in several provinces but not B.C.Crowder will push for ban on 15-seat passenger vans
Nanaimo-Cowichan NDP MP says vehicles should be outlawed after several tragedies
Danielle Bell, The Daily News
Nanaimo-Cowichan MP Jean Crowder has joined the fight to ban 15-passenger vans, which have been outlawed for school use in several provinces but not B.C.
Stella Gurr of Nanaimo lost her 26-year-old son Michael in a rollover crash while riding in a 15-passenger van in Manitoba in 2008. The same year, seven students and one teacher were killed in a 15-passenger van crash in Bathurst, N.B. Crowder has pledged her support for bill C-522, which will ban the use of 15-passenger vans for transporting school children.
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, as well as more than 40 American states, have already outlawed the vans, which some safety experts have referred to as "death traps."
"It makes you wonder why Canada has not stepped up on this," said Crowder from Ottawa. "Cargo vans are one thing but for human transportation?"
Crowder is in Ottawa, where the bill has had its first reading, which she seconded. There she met Gurr, who travelled to the Canadian capital late last month for the introduction of the private member's bill by Acadie-Bathhurst NDP MP Yvon Godin.
A coroner's inquest following the Bathurst tragedy recommended such vans be banned across Canada for student travel. Research has suggested the vans, originally designed to carry cargo, lack passenger protections, have a high centre of gravity and are prone to rollovers.
Gurr earlier said she believes that if the vans been properly licensed and regulated, her son would be alive today.
Crowder plans to continue the campaign. It's a fight that Gurr and Nanaimo vehicle inspector and school bus mechanic Bryan Murphy have also taken on.
When the bill will undergo a second reading is not known. Nanaimo-Alberni MP James Lunney was not immediately available for comment.
DBell@nanaimodailynews.com
