Inquest jury says big passenger vans 'high-risk'

The jury at a coroner's inquest into the deaths of three women in a van crash near Abbotsford, B.C., ruled the collision "accidental" as it released its findings on Thursday, while making 18 recommendations including more random inspections of vehicles used to transport farm workers.

The workers were killed in March 2007 when the van, which was overloaded and had seatbelts for just two of the 17 people inside, flipped over on the Trans-Canada Highway onto a concrete median.

The jury also recommended that 15-passenger vans be classified as high-risk vehicles, that farm workers be given better education about their rights and that the provincial transportation ministry look into replacing concrete highway barriers with steel cable barriers.

Province reviewing recommendations

The provincial minister of labour, Murray Coell, welcomed the recommendations, but said the government likely won't issue a formal response until the spring.

"We view the recommendations as both thoughtful and positive," Coell said in an interview. "The recommendations cross eight ministries and agencies and government will be reviewing them thoroughly."

Coell noted that since the accident, the province has increased inspections for vehicles transporting workers and passed legislation requiring seatbelts in those vehicles. He said more than $180,000 worth of fines have been issued.

Earlier at the inquest, family members of the three women voiced anger there were no criminal charges against the driver of the van.

The driver, Harwinder Gill, was fined $2,000 for driving without a proper licence and without reasonable consideration.

A report into the farm workers' deaths released last year by WorkSafe BC, the province's workers' compensation board, said 15-passenger vans carrying more than 10 people can become unstable.

And the incident came less than a year after another crash involving a similar van in B.C.'s Fraser Valley killed three female farm workers and injured more than a dozen others.

Large vans under scrutiny

Fifteen-passenger vans have long been the subject of debate over their safety, particularly after seven high school basketball players were killed on a New Brunswick highway nearly two years ago.

The boys died along with the wife of their coach when their van collided with a transport truck during a snowstorm as they returned home to Bathurst from a game.

Investigators suggested the type of van wasn't to blame, but the tragedy prompted some jurisdictions, including New Brunswick, to ban the use of 15-passenger vans for school travel.

In the United States, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a warning in 2001 that said the vans had a higher chance of rolling over when fully loaded, but released another report last year that said such crashes were declining.

Transport Canada, which sets safety standards required for new and imported vehicles, said in a notice posted on its website last year that it hasn't found evidence to support a similar safety warning in this country.

The federal agency completed a study in 2001 looking at van rollover collisions in Ontario over a two-year period and found only one rollover involving a large, heavily loaded passenger van.