BATHURST, New Brunswick (Jan. 15, 2008) — Canada may look to develop a category for multifunctional school buses like that in the United States following a van crash that killed seven high school basketball players and the wife of the driver late Friday night.

Wayne Lord, a math teacher and Bathurst High School Phantoms coach, was driving a 1997 Ford Club Wagon along a familiar route on a snowy road around midnight when he lost control. Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Lord struck the shoulder of the road before fishtailing and being broad-sided by a tractor-trailer truck.

Nathan Cleland, Justin Cormier, Daniel Hains, Javier Acevedo, Codey Branch, all 17; Nickolas Quinn and Nick Kelly, both 16; and Beth Lord, music teacher and wife of driver, 51, were all killed. According to Canwest News Service, Lords’ teenage daughter Katie, and two other basketball players were hospitalized. Wayne Lord was not seriously injured.

Transport Canada has joined a Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation of the crash in the context of a Canadian Standards Association request to adopt a vehicle category for multifunctional school activity vehicles, a agency spokesperson said. Currently, vehicles transporting more than 10 passengers are classified as buses.

Transport Canada will also look at the incident to see if anything can be done to prevent similar collisions or improve occupant protection, the spokesperson said.

The New Brunswick Department of Education, the agency that dictates school vehicle usage, said it will review its policies for 15-passenger vans. Currently, the department gives preference to school buses but allows 15-passenger vans for activity trips.

In neighboring Nova Scotia, the vehicles have been banned since the early 1990s. Elsewhere in Canada, they are similarly discouraged but not illegal.

In the United States the use of 10- to 15-passenger vans for pupil transportation is virtually illegal for regular route transportation. A 2005 reauthorization of the congressional highway bill, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), made it illegal for districts to buy or be sold “nonconforming” vans.

However, a 2006 National Transportation Safety Board report found 25 states had taken limited action or no action, 10 had implemented limited or partial action and 10 states had prohibited the vehicles from transporting children to all schools and day cares.