No criminal charges laid in Okanagan bus crash that killed 4 people on Christmas Eve 2022

The B.C. Prosecution Service says no criminal charges have been approved in relation to a bus crash in British Columbia's Southern Interior on Dec. 24, 2022, that killed four people and sent dozens to hospital.

The bus, belonging to the Alberta company Ebus, went off Highway 97C westbound and rolled over near the Loon Lake exit in the early evening, according to police. 

The crash triggered a massive response from emergency officials and resulted in a Code Orange at local hospitals, which is a term used to describe a mass casualty event.

Interior Health said 52 people were taken to hospital and 36 of them required treatment.

Mounties said icy road conditions contributed to the crash. In September, RCMP wrapped up its investigation, which recommended charges.

On Monday, the B.C. Prosecution Service confirmed it did not approve charges in the case because the evidence did not meet the standards of a two-part test, which the service applies to all cases.

It requires there to be a substantial likelihood of conviction; and, if so, whether the public interest requires a prosecution.

Examples of a range of considerations include the seriousness of the allegations, the likelihood of a significant sentence upon conviction and reasonable grounds for believing the offence is likely to be continued or repeated.

"In this case, Crown Counsel could not conclude that the charge assessment standard had been met and no charges were approved," Dan McLaughlin, communications counsel for the B.C. Prosecution Service, wrote in an email to CBC News.

Since charges were not approved, Mounties said they are "not in a position to confirm what was recommended."

Among the dead in the crash was 41-year-old Karanjot Singh Sodhi, who had arrived in Canada three months prior and was travelling to the Interior to spend the holidays with his cousin, Kalwinder Singh.

Singh, a transport truck driver, said he does not believe the accident was the driver's fault, but said the highway should have been closed due to poor winter driving conditions and the driver should have refused to drive that night.

"The B.C. government did not clean the road properly," he said. "There is no good justice."

Shortly after the crash, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure said a crew of maintenance workers had monitored highway conditions and spent the day of the crash plowing, salting and sanding the highway, which is also known as the Okanagan Connector.

The ministry said its Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement agency completed a mechanical inspection of the bus involved and the findings were sent to RCMP, but declined to comment further.

It said over the past few years the province has introduced legislative and regulatory changes to improve the safety of commercial vehicles on provincial highways, including electronic logging devices to help prevent fatigue-related accidents and speed limiters for heavy commercial vehicles including buses.

Ebus told CBC News following the crash that all of its drivers were "extensively trained" for winter conditions. When contacted on Wednesday, Ebus said it would not comment further on anything related to the incident.

If a bus has seatbelts, wear them: safety advocate

Commercial buses are generally the safest mode of travel on highways in Canada, according to Ahmed Shalaby, a professor of civil engineering professor at the University of Manitoba and the technical director with Safer Roads Canada. 

He said criminal charges in any crash won't necessarily help prevent future crashes.

He wants incidents such as this one and a crash on Vancouver Island in 2019 that resulted in the deaths of two University of Victoria students to be opportunities to remind people about wearing seatbelts on buses.

"There is a change in behaviour that we need to have," he said.

In 2020, Transport Canada made it mandatory for all newly built highway buses to have seatbelts. Police previously said the bus involved in the crash had seatbelts, but that the majority of passengers weren't wearing them when the vehicle went off the road.

B.C.'s Motor Vehicle Act says if a seatbelt is available on any vehicle driven on a highway it should be worn, but Shalaby says the rule is not enforced. He said passengers should be made aware of the benefits of wearing seatbelts.

"Bus crashes are so rare that most people don't think about the possible outcome, even in severe weather, even in dangerous conditions," he said. 

"By being strapped in a seat, this is the safest position we can be in a bus, even in the event of a crash like this where a bus is overturned on its side and windows are smashed."