Five of Canada’s Most Horrific Man-Made Accidents

Canada is an incredible place to grow up and raise children but like any other country on the planet we have had our own fair share of tragedies. The tragedies you are about to read are not the usual natural disasters but rather man made mistakes which might have been avoidable if certain precautions where taken.

Bathurst Van Collision

This mangled van was involved in what is being called one of Canada’s worst accidents involving a sports team.

The van was carrying a high school basketball team back from an away game on Jan 12, 2008 when it fished tailed into a tractor trailer rig killing 8 people and injuring 4. It is said 7 of the passengers where ejected during the time of the crash.

It is said the driver of the van had over corrected when trying to merge into another lane with another tractor trailer. After a lengthy investigation Transport Canada had found that the cause of the accident was due to freezing rain, driver error and lack of snow tires.

This is definitely one sad accident that might have been preventable if proper driving precautions where taken. Also in July 2008 an RCMP report released to the public said if the vehicle was subjected to a safety inspection before hand, it would not have passed.

This accident in my eyes is a disaster since so many innocent lives where lost due to failure to check the vehicle’s safety aspects.

Swissair Flight 111 Disaster

This is the cock pit remains of Swissair flight 111 that sadly crashed on September 2, 1998 while trying to make an emergency landing at the Halifax International Airport.

Reports say pilots radioed the air traffic control claiming there was smoke in the cock pit and requesting an emergency landing which went horribly wrong.

Some investigations claim that the crew had made a vital mistake when they noticed the smoke and shut down the power supply in the cabin which stopped the fans and caused the fire to spread out of control. The cabin filled with smoke quickly and soon the instruments started to fail which eventually caused the pilots to crash.

The plane crashed at the entrance of St. Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia killing all 229 people aboard. After a 4 year investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, they concluded flammable material used in the aircrafts structure had allowed the fire to spread beyond the control of the crew.