Use of 15-seat vans suspended in N.B.

The use of 15-seat vans to transport schoolchildren has been suspended in New Brunswick, where a horrific accident claimed the lives of eight people last weekend.

The ban on the use of the vehicles to transport students to school will be in place until the end of the current school year, Education Minister Kelly Lamrock said on Friday.

Lamrock is also asking that schools discontinue the use of the passenger vans for extracurricular activities.

It is up to school districts to determine their own means of transportation, but Lamrock said the government is asking that schools conform to the Education Department guidelines related to student activities and transportation to off-site activities.

"Given the sensitivity surrounding the accident in Bathurst, it is unimaginable that any parent, teacher, student council leader, coach, principal or administrator would be comfortable using this vehicle, in the current climate of doubt around the use of 15-passenger vans," Lamrock said in a release.

Seven Bathurst High School basketball players, along with a local teacher, were killed early Saturday when their 15-seat 1997 Ford Club Wagon struck a tractor-trailer while returning from a game in Moncton.

"I believe that it is in the best interest of everybody who has to make decisions for safe student travel to be spared having to wrestle with this option until all the facts are known," Lamrock said.

Department guidelines indicate that wherever possible, students should be taken to activities in school buses and not smaller passenger vehicles.

It also indicates that principals should not authorize overnight travel to any off-site activities. But in what several school officials have described as a grey area, the guidelines define the transport as consistent travel throughout the night.

Questions raised

So far there is no evidence that the vehicle type played a role in the accident, Lamrock said.

"However, a number of questions have been raised this week in the aftermath of the accident that has created an air of uncertainty about 15-passenger vans," the minister said in the release. "Some of the questions are based on actions of other jurisdictions, while some may be outright guesses."

School District 18, which covers eight high schools, including those in Fredericton, will extend the ban to extracurricular activities, said Supt. Alex Dingwall.

"At this point in time, there are a significant number of schools that do use vans as a major way of transporting students to extracurricular activities and we'll have to look at other ways of doing that," Dingwall told CBC News.

Schools will be able to come up with their own alternatives to passenger vans, he said, but the district will place a focus on trying to organize school buses to be available for team transportation.

Cost issues and scheduling have been major issues for schools trying to use school buses in the past, Dingwall said.

Dingwall said he will be talking with all the schools to try to assess the impact of the ban and to look at ways to ensure they are able to participate in currently scheduled activities.

Working group to investigate

An interdepartmental working group is being established to review the Bathurst accident, he said. It will review student transportation guidelines and make recommendations on how to minimize the risk of travel by students to extracurricular activities.

New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham confirmed on Thursday that his province is conducting its own review into the use of 15-passenger vans in the wake of the crash.

Safety issues have been raised about the extended-seating van since the accident. Several jurisdictions in the United States and Canada, including Nova Scotia, have banned schools from using this type of van.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued several advisories about the dangers of the 15-passenger vans. About 1,100 people in the U.S. were killed in single-vehicle rollovers in the vans between 1992 and 2002. Such vans were found to be three times more likely to roll over than any other vehicle.

The RCMP and Transport Canada are still continuing to investigate the weekend accident.

Icy road conditions, not the type of vehicle the victims were travelling in, were likely the key factor in the crash, Frank Wilson, co-ordinator of the Transport Canada investigation team, said on Wednesday.

The RCMP reported snow-covered roads in the area at the time of the accident and the van was not outfitted with snow tires.