Seatbelts would have helped, crash victim says

The boyfriend of a woman killed when a sightseeing bus the couple was on rolled in the Rocky Mountains believes she would still be alive had passengers been wearing seatbelts.

“I definitely think everyone would be OK if there were seatbelts,” Devon Ernest said Tuesday from his hospital bed in Edmonton before he was discharged later in the day.

Ernest, 23, was with his girlfriend, Dionne Durocher, and his cousin in Jasper National Park on the weekend. Ernest lived with Durocher, 24, in North Battleford, Sask. He said he planned the trip to Alberta for his birthday and wanted to bring his girlfriend of two years.

They boarded the glacier bus on what was supposed to be the final day of their vacation. Ernest recalls the bus started to head down a slope. The last thing he remembers is hitting the roof of the bus, then waking up next to Durocher who was awake, but barely breathing. Thinking Durocher was OK, he ran to find his cousin, who was also injured. “I went running back to my girlfriend and her eyes were closed and she wasn’t breathing,” Ernest said.

Three people were killed and 24 survivors, many with critical injuries, were triaged out over several hours and taken to hospital. The cause of the crash has not been determined.

Pursuit, the company that runs the Columbia Icefield tours, said the buses don’t have seatbelts, because the vehicles are not approved to drive on the highway and don’t go faster than 40 km/h.