Tour bus operator pleads guilty, fined $475,000 for fatal rollover in Jasper

RCMP attend the scene of a sightseeing bus rollover at the Columbia Icefields near Jasper, Alta., Sunday, July 19, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

JASPER -

A tour bus operator pleaded guilty on Monday to two charges in a fatal rollover in Jasper National Park nearly three years ago. 

Crown prosecutor Adam May said Brewster Travel Canada Inc. was convicted under the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to mandate seatbelts and for failing to control hazards.

He said Brewster, which is owned by Viad Corp., was ordered to pay a total fine of $475,000.

Of that amount, $365,000 is to go to the University of Alberta for research on vehicles, such as big-wheeled ice explorers, and $109,000 is to be given to STARS air ambulance.

The remaining $1,000 is to go to the court.

Brewster was initially charged with eight workplace offences. The other charges were withdrawn as part of the plea agreement, May said. 

Three people were killed and 14 were injured after the tour bus lost control on the road to the Athabasca Glacier, about 100 kilometres from Jasper, on July 18, 2020.

The bus was carrying about two dozen people when it rolled 50 metres down a moraine embankment in the Columbia Icefields before coming to rest on its roof. 

The icefield tours stopped and resumed in 2022 after the operator added seatbelts to the buses and made changes to training for its drivers.

At least two civil lawsuits were also filed by survivors of the crash.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2023.