‘These are things we’ve been asking for’: changes coming to party bus industry

MAPLE RIDGE (NEWS 1130) – A Maple Ridge family is hoping new regulations for party buses will keep other families from experiencing the pain they’ve felt over the last 10 years.

The province announced on Friday that starting early next year, party buses will have to have a safety monitor or chaperones if a minor is on board, require minors to have a signed consent form from a parent or guardian, install cameras, and an emergency alert system for buses with separate passenger compartments.

“It prevents the nightmare from unfolding on somebody else’s front door like it did to mine,” says Julie Raymond, who’s daughter Shannon Raymond died following a party bus ride.

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“When I opened the door that morning my door bell rang, I thought Shannon forgot her key, I never thought I’d be met with two RCMP officers to tell me my daughter was dead.”

Shannon died in July 2008, hours after taking ecstasy with other kids in the back of a party bus and going into medical distress. Julie and her other daughter, Danielle Raymond, have been lobbying the province to take action ever since.

“[The State of Washington] had learned of Shannon’s story. The state had no deaths attributed to the party bus industry, yet they initiated the very changes we were lobbying in BC for,” says Julie, who adds the changes are long overdue.

“They put those changes in place within a year and they had suffered no deaths, yet in BC we had three deaths and several tragedies associated with that industry and still the safeguards weren’t put in place.”

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The province also announced that fines, for party buses and commercial vehicles that do not display valid decals confirming they have passed a safety inspection are going up immediately, from $81 to $318, making them among the highest in Western Canada, according to the government.

“These are things that we’ve been asking for, for a really long time. These things increase accountability, so the industry wouldn’t have been able to turn a blind eye to things that were going on,” says Danielle, who believes if the incoming changes would have been in effect 10 years ago, her sister would still be alive today.

“I try really hard to honour her memory by being true to myself everyday, and correcting this wrong in the party bus industry is one way that I’ve tried to do that.”

Tommy Cuscito, owner of Tommy Limo, which operates party buses, says he already requires chaperones and consent forms for minors taking a ride.

“We put that in place since 2011, ourselves, and I’m pretty excited and thankful that we’d actually made that part of the policies and procedures that the transport is recognizing it needs to be put in, cause there are a lot of companies out there that don’t.”

He generally welcomes cameras and emergency alert systems, but hopes the province gives companies enough time to implement them.

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“Depending on cost and fleet size, that always comes with a heavier cost, but when it comes to safety that’s always something that can always get figured out.”

Cuscito especially welcomes the increased fines.

“There’s no other way of really getting the message sent to the operators. If our paper work, policies and procedures aren’t in place and you get caught with it, you should pay.”