Was the Humboldt Broncos bus travelling at 123 km/h before its driver applied the brakes? There should have been a simple answer to this question, almost 10 months after the crash of April 6, 2018. But given that the police report has still not be revealed to the public that answer is far from simple.

Did the police purposely discuss the contents of their report with journalists instead of releasing it to the public? Given that journalists are known for their vast knowledge in forensics and accident reconstruction? Let us look at an example from an article written by Josh K. Elliott, of Global News. Mr. Elliott wrote the following:

“The bus struck the middle of the lead trailer at 96-107 kilometres an hour, despite the bus driver’s efforts to brake and avoid the crash.”

Further in the article Mr. Elliott wrote:

“The bus was doing 98-108 kilometres an hour when the driver hit the brakes 24 metres before the intersection.”

Is this discrepancy of facts too challenging for the average reader to comprehend? Is this why we have so much difficulty in recognizing the extent of misinformation that is being passed through the “telegraph wires”?

If this is too difficult let us break down the problem piece by piece. Here is the scenario:

The bus driver was travelling at 108 km/h when he saw truck. He applied his brakes and he slid for 24 metres. The bus then struck the truck at a speed of 107 km/h. So the bus lost 1 km/h in the time/distance that it skidded 24 metres. Does that make the smallest amount of sense?

Yet, independent reconstruction experts know that a typical heavy truck or bus often attains a deceleration rate of about 0.6g during maximum braking. The speed lost in skidding 24 metres would be just over 60 km/h. So if the bus was travelling at 107 km/h when it struck the truck it must have been travelling about 123 km/h when the bus driver hit the brakes. Yet travelling at 23 km/h above the 100 km/h speed limit had no bearing on this case – as per the RCMP?

1 km/h versus 60 km/h. Is this what the public is to accept as credible forensic science?

Why has the RCMP report of their investigation not been revealed to the public, and to the eyes of independent accident reconstruction experts who can inform the public about junk science!