It was three years ago tonight the Boys in Red Tragedy happened in Bathurst!!!

Another fine job of pictures taking by my buddy from the Bathurst area - David Chiasson!!!





Thanks buddy!!!

:)

Charles,

Bathurst Mother Asks Federal and Provincial Governments to Implement Recommendations from Coroners Inquest: Ban 15 passenger vans, use professional drivers

http://blog.vanangels.ca/2011/01/bathurst-mother-asks-federal-and.html

(Bathurst, NB – January 12, 2011) - Three years ago on January 12, 2008, my son Daniel and seven others were killed in a tragic passenger van collision just outside of Bathurst, New Brunswick. Known as the Boys in Red, their deaths have come to symbolize the failure of the student transportation system in New Brunswick and across Canada.

As a mother, I will always mourn the death of my son Daniel and his fellow Bathurst High School Phantoms basketball team members whose lives were taken three years ago today. They paid the price for the system’s failure and as the May 2009 Coroners Inquest into the death of our sons revealed, so many people with the power and authority to change the course of events that night failed to do their duty and seven dead children were the result.

As mothers we have overcome many obstacles – personal and emotional - in the last three years to bring awareness to the issues of student transportation safety so that our sons deaths were not in vain. Before this happened, I was just an ordinary person. I had never spoken to the media in my life and I didn’t concern myself with politics. I was a just a mother. So it is not easy for me to speak out in the media but I do it because I know I have to, not only for my son Daniel but for all students in the future so that they may be safe. And I know that if Daniel was alive, he would support what I am doing. I also know that if my son had not been in a 15 passenger van that night three years ago, if he had been in a Multi Function Activity Bus (MFAB) driven by a professional Class 2 Yellow School Bus driver, we would be talking about something very different today because he and six young boys would be alive.

On Monday, we were advised by the NB Minister of Education, Jody Carr, that a departmental committee on student transportation will be struck in New Brunswick. While I am pleased to know that the province has made this commitment, it means nothing if students are still driven to extra-curricular events by volunteers who are not qualified to handle these large Multi Function Activity Buses. We do not ask volunteers to drive Yellow School Buses and we should not be asking them to drive MFABs.

So today, on the third anniversary of their deaths, I am sending out this message to the Premier of New Brunswick, David Alward, the Minister of Education Jody Carr, the Minister of Transportation, Claude Williams and the Minster of Public Safety, Robert Trevors, imploring them to implement recommendation #6 from the Coroners Inquest into the death of our sons.

Recommendation #6: Nothing less than qualified, class 2 yellow school bus driver(s) with endorsements B (valid for school buses) and E (valid for air brakes) for all student travel to off-site extra-curricular events. Teachers, coaches and parents, as well as volunteers should not be driving to children to off-site extra-curricular events.

I am also asking Chuck Strahl, the Federal Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, to implement recommendation #8 from the Coroners Inquest:

Recommendation #8: Fifteen passenger and seven passenger vans banned for student travel across Canada. Only yellow school buses and multi function activity buses (MFABs) should be used.

We are expecting Minister Strahl to soon release the results of 15 passenger van safety review that was promised in June by his predecessor, John Baird, and to which Minister Strahl committed to examining a national consensus on student transportation safety in September, 2010 in Halifax at the Council of Ministers meeting.

I believe that with the release of this report, Transport Canada will come to no other conclusion but that 15 passenger vans must be banned for transporting students and children in every province across Canada.

Finally, I want to make it clear that I will never give up lobbying for safe student transportation and I will not go away until the last recommendation from the Coroners Inquest into the death of our sons are implemented. I owe it to my son Daniel and all the other Boys in Red to keep up the fight until 15 passenger vans are banned for student use across Canada and nothing less than qualified, Class 2 licensed Yellow School Bus Drivers are behind the wheels of Multi-Function Activity Buses.

- 30 –

For further information, please contact:

Isabelle Hains
info@vanangels.ca
http://blog.vanangels.ca/2011/01/bathurst-mother-asks-federal-and.html




Click below for their website -

Van Angels website


It's one of those days that you won't forget where you were. I was getting up in the morning and heard the News on the Radio.

I was still half asleep until someone from Bathurst was giving me the details on MSN Messanger.

It was Saturday and I went at the Farmer's Market and me and then Premier Shawn discussed the tragedy.






I would have never believed that I would be involved in this issue.

I was there for the Coroners Inquest and let me tell you one thing??? The Coroners Act must change!!! It was totally ridiculous of the amount of work the Mothers had to do to get some much needed answers!!!

I interviewed one of the Mothers a couple of days ago.






Click below for the interviews!!! < I don't know what happened to the colors of the video? >

My deepest sympathy to the Families and Friends on this very sad day....:(





Part one < Before the tragedy happened >





Part Two < Beginning searching for answers >






Part three - < The push for a Coroners Inquest >






Part Four - < Her views on Politicians >






Part Five - < Highway should be four lanes >





Part Six - < Class two drivers to drive our kids >








Part Seven - < Must keep pushing for the safety of our kids >





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Calls for Charges To be Laid Under Motor Vehicle Act and Superintendent to be Reprimanded

Sickening, is all we can say at revelations that Bill Estabrooks, the owner of Prestige Bus Service of Sackville, New Brunswick is so ignorant about his responsibilities under the Motor Vehicle Act that he ADMITS in an interview with Bill Powers of the Halifax Chronicle Herald that he knew the tires on two charter buses with 60 New Brunswick school children on board had to be replaced but decided to go ahead with the 300 km trip to Halifax and back anyways.

Click below for rest of story -

Click here to read article "Tire checks stop school buses in their tracks" on the front page of the Halifax Herald today


And you know Estabrooks is worried when his only defense is to accuse his critics of "over-reacting" when they compare his IRRESPONSIBLE and ILLEGAL actions to the Bathurst tragedy which killed our sons.

As much as Mr. Estabrooks would like people to believe the bald tires on his chartered bus and the Boys in Red Tragedy ARE NOT related, they ARE connected by the cavalier attitude of people like him who put 60 children on charter buses with bald tires in winter and by a government that backs them up by refusing to do anything about it.

Lay Charges Under the Motor Vehicle Act

All we can say is he better get charged with a violation of the Motor Vehicle Act, like volunteer bus driver, Brice Noel, was in 2009 when the 21 passenger Multi Function Activity Bus he was driving had a wheel fly off the front end during a trip to Hartland, New Brunswick with a busload of basketball players! If Mr. Estabrooks isn't charged, we'll be following up with the NB Minister of Public Safety to find out why.

Reprimand Superintendent As Called for in Coroners Inquest

We're also calling upon the Minister of Education, Jody Carr, to reprimand District 2 Superintendent Karen Branscombe, for her failure to protect our children by allowing 60 students to be transported to an extra-curricular activity on a chartered bus with bald tires in winter. It is one of the recommendations from the Coroners Inquest that was actually implemented:

A process should be put in place so that persons employed by the Department of Education who fail to fulfil their duties as outlined in the guidelines, policies and regulations of the department are reprimanded. The reprimand should be recognized and serve as a reminder to other staff that they must do their job or be confronted with a reprimand or dismissal, if need be - Recommendation from the Bathurst Coroners Inquest, May 2009



Premier David Alward has a chance to change the direction of this story. We implore him to follow the May 2009 Coroners Jury recommendations that students be transported to extra curricular activities in yellow school buses or Multi Fuction Activity
Buses by qualified, Class 2 licensed yellow school bus drivers.


THERE IS NO OTHER SAFE WAY TO TRANSPORT STUDENTS TO EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES. We repeat: Children are NOT SAFE when they are on board vehicles with bald tires. There is no negotiation in this matter.

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My God!!! The CBC website are allowing very NASTY comments about the Mothers!!!

I don't bother to read the CBC Website any longer.....The guy in charge Daniel McHardie should be fired for allowing those nasty comments!!!

I think I'm going to go on a tirade against this guy!!!

Just not fair at all!!!

Sign your name and give your opinion but to allow these Cowards blasted these Mothers is unacceptable!!!

I might confront Daniel myself with my camera and ask - Why does he hate those Mothers so bad???

Anyway!!!

Here's the interview I made with Isabelle Hains yesterday!!!

P.S. Save the Ugly comments for the CBC Site!!!

Part one -




Part Two -