Calls for 15-passenger van ban

Transport Canada is studying the safety of 15 passenger vans in the wake of the Bathurst, New Brunswick van crash in 2008, and a private members bill introduced in New Brunswick calling for a nationwide ban on the use of these vehicles for school trips, reports the Ontario School Bus Association.

The private member’s bill would make it an offence under the criminal code to transport students in vans with more than 10 and fewer than 17 seats. OSBA said Transport Canada was expected to report on its findings later this year.

New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec no longer allow 15 passenger vans for transporting students on school trips. The NTSB says 1,100 people in the U.S. were killed in single-vehicle rollovers involving these vans between 1992 and 2002. Fifteen-passenger vans are said to be times more likely to roll over than any other vehicle.