'Death traps' still popular in most provinces

Only Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have banned schools from using vans. The other provinces say it's not up to them to tell schools what vehicles they can use

By Richard Foot, Canwest News Service

(Click here to read the full article in the Calgary Herald)

September 9, 2009

Dozens of school districts in Canada are still transporting children to extracurricular events in 12- and 15-seat passenger vans, nearly two years after a deadly New Brunswick accident brought the dangers of those vans to the nation's attention.


All but three provinces — Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia — still allow schoolchildren to travel in the vans, called "death traps" by the Safety Forum, a U.S. consumer watchdog.


The federal government also hasn't restricted the sale or distribution of the vans Canada, even though U.S. federal law bans their sale for the purposes of child transport, and more than 30 American states prohibit schools or daycares from using them.


Seven high school students and a teacher were killed in New Brunswick in January, 2008 when the 15-seat van they were driving in swerved out of control and collided with a transport truck.


In the weeks after the crash, education officials in several provinces promised to review the use of 15-seat vans. At the time, only Nova Scotia banned schools from using them — a rule enacted in 1994 after a 15-seat van crashed in Nova Scotia, killing three young hockey players and a parent.


So far only Quebec and New Brunswick have followed suit. The others say it's not their responsibility to dictate to schools what vehicles they can use.


A survey by Canwest News Service of 37 school districts across Canada found seven districts, 19 per cent of the sample, that still used 12- or 15-seat vans to drive children to extracurricular events. Click here to read the rest of the article in the Calgary Herald.

The dangers of 15-seat passenger vans.

Why are 15-seat vans so dangerous?

Click here to read the full article.

Twelve- and 15-seat vans were originally designed by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors as cargo vans. In the 1970s, the vans were extended in length and equipped with seats to meet a growing market demand for a vehicle that could carry more than 10 passengers.

Yet the design was never modified to include steel side plates, roof reinforcement or laminated windows, to protect passengers during a rollover or collision.

``They don't have the normal safety features of a family minivan,'' says U.S. lawyer and van safety expert Richard Gergel. ``The side of a 15-passenger van resembles more of a pickup truck.''

Click here to read the rest of this article.

This map and sortable table show an overview of the findings for each province

This map and sortable table show an overview of the findings for each province and a summary of the 13 Bathurst inquest recommendations that are relevant for schools throughout Canada.

Click to view map.

Precious Cargo: Keeping our school kids safe

Seven high school basketball players and a teacher were killed in one of Canada's worst school tragedies in January 2008 when the van carrying them home from a routine road trip collided with a transport truck near Bathurst, New Brunswick.

In May 2009, a provincial coroner's inquest into the accident revealed serious safety flaws with the way children travel to extracurricular school events, and recommended a series of changes by provincial governments across the country.

As a new school year begins, what, if any, changes have been made? Canwest News Service investigates.

Click here for full story.

CANWEST Investigation shows hodgepodge of safety standards plagues extracurricular activity vehicles

Part 1 in a three-part series investigating what changes have taken place nationally since the 2008 crash that killed 8 high school basketball players in New Brunswick

Across Canada this academic year, schools will send millions of children to extracurricular activities in vehicles considered unsafe, and with drivers deemed unqualified by a coroner's jury that examined the deaths of seven New Brunswick high school athletes in 2008.

Nearly two years after the tragedy, no province except Quebec and New Brunswick has made significant changes to the way children travel to off-site school events.

A Canwest News Service investigation also shows that the changes called for by the inquest in May are being largely ignored across Canada. None of the major safety recommendations has been adopted by the federal government, or any of the provinces. Every provincial government, plus 37 urban and rural school districts from coast to coast were surveyed. Many school districts reported tightening up their travel policies in the wake of the Bathurst accident. Yet the research still reveals a hodgepodge of practices in place across the country, and large differences in safety standards from one district to another.

Click here to read full story.

The van debate: what cost a student's life?

Ron Campbell was dumbfounded in January 2008 when news broke that seven students and a teacher had died in a 15-seat van while driving home from a high school basketball game in New Brunswick.

The tragedy shocked many, but for Campbell it hit particularly close.

He and other volunteers — all experts in school bus transportation — had for several years been working with the Canadian Standards Association, writing the country’s first national standard for a safe, extracurricular school vehicle, designed to replace 15-seat vans.

“The people around the committee table were really speechless,” says Campbell, a school bus industry salesman.

Click here for full story.

To All Our Supporters

Thank you to everyone who silently supported us during the Coroner’s inquest and our struggle to get there. To those who sent us flowers, letters, emails and so many telephone calls and who wrote letters written to the editor on our behalf in our local paper and out of town newspapers. We are deeply touched by your kindness and all your encouraging words.

Our sincere thanks to everyone who believes in our determination to make safe travel for all children who are active in after school activities. We do this in loving memory of our sons who were killed on January 12, 2008 and for the future of all children.

Isabelle and Ana