A Langley mom is calling for better regulation of B.C.’s party bus industry after her teenage daughter was punched in the face during a party bus stop and left unconscious in a rural parking lot in the middle of the night.
Theresa Gortva’s 17-year-old daughter Mackenzie was given a black eye, a broken tooth and knocked out cold for several minutes by one of the apparently drunk partiers on November 10 – an incident that’s now being investigated by Abbotsford police.
“I look at the party bus situation as a ticking time bomb,” Gortva told CTV News. “This could happen to anybody – a young man, a young woman. These are unlicensed bars on wheels.”
Party buses are larger vehicles with a stereo, plush seats and sometimes a dance floor that can be rented hourly for groups. Mackenzie Gortva said a friend of hers who knew someone renting a party bus invited her out that night.
“It was a party. I didn’t know people on it but I thought, let’s do something,” Mackenzie remembered.
Some 25 young people boarded the bus in Surrey and the organizers headed to Abbotsford for a drive. Everyone drank, according to Mackenzie, who said the evening became tense with a dispute between her and another young woman she hadn’t met before.
“Some girl was yelling at a man, saying why are you talking to her. I said, ‘What’s the problem, I’ve never met you before,'” she said.
When the party bus stopped for a bathroom break at around 2:30 am, everyone left the bus to a truck stop on Sumas Road south of Abbotsford. That’s when a man punched Mackenzie into the side of a container truck.
“My head hit so hard on this, it sounded like a gunshot,” she said. “It was so loud, I was unconscious, I was underneath the semi-truck for who knows how long.”
Mackenzie’s friends went to her aid – and the other group piled into the party bus and the bus took off. When she came to, an ambulance was on its way, and the bus was nowhere to be seen.
The party bus is operated by Favori Limousines. Owner Roger Medor said his driver was told by a partier that night that the girls wished to stay, and he obliged.
“They just said, ‘They don’t go any more with us,’” said Medor. “The driver didn’t know anything about what happened.”
Favori Limousines was also the company driving 16-year-old Ernest Azoadam in February. The teen collapsed and died outside a gas station. The coroner has since found that the death was not related to alcohol or drugs, but the police cited Favori Limousines for open liquor in a vehicle in February.
Medor said his company doesn’t allow alcohol on board, but that it’s difficult to police as teens can hide alcohol easily.
“Nobody is allowed to drink on the bus, but what can we do?” he said.
Azoadam’s death prompted the provincial government to promise tough new regulations, including meeting with the party bus industry.
However nine months later, there has been little progress.
“We’re reviewing a bunch of options and no decisions have been taken to any major changes at this point,” said B.C. Transportation Minister Todd Stone, when he was asked at a Surrey Board of Trade meeting Thursday.
The lack of action has police musing about stepping in.
“Maybe that’s what it will take is police doing stops of party buses and inspecting what’s going on,” Abbotsford police spokesman Const. Ian Macdonald told CTV News.
Police are hoping to speak with more people on the bus, but have yet to hear back from a “pivotal figure” who knew everyone aboard, he said. He’s also hoping that any other witnesses will call Abbotsford Police as well.
Theresa Gortva says she knows underage people will try to drink. But she wants to see rules that would make it safer, including forcing party buses to ID young people and make sure that the buses keep track of everyone aboard.
“If we had some regulation to regulate this then the drives of the party buses could card them like they do at a night club or a bar,” she said.
Her daughter agreed, adding that on a bus, unlike a bar, there are no security staff that might have stepped in or kept track of the young people.
“There’s no bouncers. There’s no name list. I could have been killed. I consider myself very lucky,” she said.
