Bathurst, N.B. marks 'Boys in Red' anniversary
Community still urging for 15-passenger van ban
Five years after a tragic crash that killed seven members of the Bathurst High School basketball team people in the community are still pleading for an outright ban on the use of 15-passenger vans in schools across Canada.
Seven high school basketball players —now remembered as the Boys In Red — and their coach's wife died when their 15-passenger van collided with a transport truck on Jan. 12, 2008. The accident rocked the small northern New Brunswick city.
Since then, 15-passenger vans have been banned from school use in New Brunswick.
But Melinda Jarratt, who attended a memorial service for the boys on Saturday, said more needs to be done.
"Federally they have not banned them. That's the big shock to everyone that after everything that's happened, all these years, all of the deaths that federally nothing has been done to really ban those vehicles from use as student transportation. But we want to remember, so we don't forget and so that history doesn't repeat itself," she said.
Jarratt said the ban should extend to community groups or organizations that transport youth.
