‘Catastrophic’: Tour bus had brake problems before deadly Columbia Icefield rollover

JASPER, ALBERTA, CANADA — A fatality inquiry heard Friday the driver of a tour bus complained about his brakes just days before it tumbled down an embankment in Jasper National Park, killing three people.

Court also heard the Ice Explorer bus had been serviced by Wajax, a company that offers repairs and maintenance for heavy-duty vehicles, two months before it lost control on a road leading to the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefield in July 2020.

It rolled about 50 metres down before coming to rest on its roof.

Fourteen others were seriously injured.

“Looking from a layman’s (point of view), it appears it was a catastrophic braking issue,” Judge Vaughn Myers told court.

A fatality inquiry cannot assign blame but makes recommendations to prevent similar deaths.

The judge said he was left puzzled by how the bus could pass an inspection and — after only five trips in the span of two months — have a “catastrophic brake problem.”

“How does something as catastrophic as that happen?” he asked.

Dionne Durocher, 24, of North Battleford, Sask., as well as Kamleshbai Patel, 58, and Griva Patel, 28, of Edmonton, died in the crash. Relatives of the victims were not present for the hearing.

Brian Misskey, lead mechanic for Brewster Inc., the company that runs the tours, said five years ago, all drivers were expected to complete pre-trip inspections and hand them in to mechanics at the end of the day.

The driver of the coach that crashed had complained the vehicle, which had air brakes, was not stopping quickly enough, the mechanic said.

Misskey said he was assured by two mechanics that the work had been done, but there was no written proof.

“The only test that would have been performed after the adjustments would have been driving it out of the tent and operating the brakes inside when it was being parked,” he said.

He told the judge it has been frustrating trying to find an answer as to why the brakes failed.

“There’s nothing that really is a single focal point of what we can say that would have caused that,” Misskey said.

Brewster, also known as Pursuit, conducted its own internal investigation of the crash after it occurred, said Jim Martin, the company’s director of health and safety.

“It was a tragic loss and a tragic loss for our company. We’ve never experienced anything like that,” said Martin.

He said the Ice Explorers make about 11,000 trips every year.

RCMP didn’t lay criminal charges as a result of the accident, but Brewster pleaded guilty to two charges under the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Act. The company was fined $475,000 for failing to mandate seatbelts and failing to control hazards.

Following the accident, the icefield tours were paused but resumed after Brewster added seatbelts to the buses and made changes to training for its drivers.

Martin said other changes include more oversight and safeguards regarding brakes. He said the Ice Explorers also now stay in full-wheel drive for the entire trip.

Beforehand, drivers wouldn’t switch into gear until they reached a flat spot at the top of the hill, about 75 metres long.

The judge will release his recommendations at a later date.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2025.

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press