The Boys in Red accident was a January 12, 2008 collision just outside the city of Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada, between a semi-trailer truck and a van carrying the basketball team from Bathurst High School. The accident killed seven students and a teacher and injured four other occupants in the van. It was the deadliest transportation accident in New Brunswick since 1989, when a logging truck tipped onto a hayride in Cormier Village, killing 13.
The accident was followed by a national day of mourning in Canada, and a ban on all E350 Ford Club Wagon type vehicles being used for student transport in New Brunswick. Two investigations, one by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the other by Transport Canada, found that the cause of the disaster was a combination of poor road conditions, lack of proper snow tires, and possible driver error. Pressure from the public and victims' families prompted the chief coroner of the province to launch an inquiry, which produced recommendations to improve student transport safety in New Brunswick. The provincial government agreed with the majority of the suggestions and has since enacted many of them.
Read more about Boys In Red Accident: Accident, Reaction, Investigation, Aftermath, Memorial
Famous quotes containing the words boys, red and/or accident:
“With boys you always know where you stand. Right in the path of a hurricane. It’s all there. The fruit flies hovering over their waste can, the hamster trying to escape to cleaner air, the bedrooms decorated in Early Bus Station Restroom.”
—Erma Bombeck (20th century)
“Its whether will ye be a rank robber’s wife,
Or will ye die by my wee pen knife?
Its I’ll not be a rank robber’s wife,
But I’ll rather die by your wee pen knife.
He ‘s killed this may and he ‘s laid her by,
For to bear the red rose company.”
—Unknown. Babylon; or, The Bonnie Banks o’ Fordie (l. 9–14)
“Thus he struggled, by every method, to keep his light shining before men. Surely the lighthouse-keeper has a responsible, if an easy, office. When his lamp goes out, he goes out; or, at most, only one such accident is pardoned.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)