Three people died as tour bus carrying 25 overturned
Tour bus operator Banff Jasper Collection by Pursuit is facing eight charges in connection to a fatal rollover that killed three people in Jasper National Park in 2020.
On July 18, 2020, one Ice Explorers tour – at the Athabasca Glacier in the southern part of Jasper Park – carrying 25 people overturned after taking a turn before it reached the ice and rolled “50 to 100 yards” down the hill. The bus ended up on its roof, RCMP said at the time.
Three people died at the scene. The rest, including the driver, were taken to hospital.
At the time of the incident, RCMP said 27 people were on the bus. But a spokesperson for the Alberta government confirmed that while there were 27 names on the manifest, two people didn’t end up taking the tour, reported The Peterborough Examiner.
The rescue required a coordinated effort from local helicopter companies.
The RCMP investigation results have not yet been released, but the charges announced Friday were laid under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, according to a report from The Peterborough Examiner.
The charges allege that Brewster Inc. – the tour operator’s previous name – failed to maintain a safe workplace by, among other things, requiring seatbelts, controlling the hazard of the lateral moraine, meaning the gravel slope the bus rolled down, and ensuring all equipment could perform the function for which it was designed, according to the report.
The company said it supports the investigation, according to the report. Also, additional safety and training measures had been implemented in 2021 following an “extensive” review, the company said.
Previously, a construction worker was seriously injured in a hit-and-run near a road construction site in Montreal. Also, a brake failure on a dump truck resulted in injuries to one worker, according to WorkSafeBC.
If the data from Burnaby RCMP, in British Columbia, is going to be the basis, it seems far too many commercial vehicles are unsafe for the road. In a roadside safety check, inspectors found that 67 per cent of commercial vehicles were “unfit for the roadway”. These vehicles had been placed out of service, according to Burnaby RCMP.
“A proper #pretrip inspection could have prevented these #OOS,” said Burnaby RCMP in a tweet.
