A New Brunswick coroner's inquest made two dozen recommendations aimed at improving the safety of school activity trips following a fatal January 2008 van crash that killed seven high school basketball players and the driver's wife.

The five-person jury agreed with Canadian national standards published last July that seek a ban of all seven- and 15-passenger vans used to transport school children on activity trips like the one that crashed near Bathurst. That crash occurred near midnight when driver Wayne Lord lost control of a 1997 Ford Club Wagon on a familiar yet snowy road. The vehicle struck the shoulder, fishtailed and was broadsided by an oncoming tractor-trailer truck. The coroner's report said all school children should only be transported via school bus or multi-function school activity bus.

Education Minister Kelly Lamrock said the province will implement a "majority of the 24 recommendations" but added that school bus recommendation could be the hardest to implement because of the high costs involved. Other recommendations made by the coroner's jury included a Class 2 school bus driver's license and a law banning school activity trip travel in bad weather.

In response to recommendations made by a government work group last August, the department of education had already introduced new travel and maintenance policies for school vehicles in February. The policies mandate increased training for drivers who transport students, provide additional funding in support of extracurricular transportation, mandate that schools may not purchase or lease 15-passenger vans for the purpose of transporting students and require the use of winter tires from Oct. 15 to April 30.

The new policies also direct that maintenance of school-operated vehicles will be performed by the department of transportation to ensure consistency around the province. Schools will still be responsible for vehicle maintenance costs.