An Airdrie mother whose son was seriously injured in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in April says she's pleased with the move made by the Airdrie Minor Hockey Association to mandate the use of seatbelts on all charter buses carrying teams. 

Michelle Straschnitzki has become an advocate for seatbelts on buses since the crash that killed 16 people and injured 13 others.  Among the injured was her son Ryan.

"I'm really, really happy about it.  It's been a long time coming, it seems like, but I'm so glad that they're being proactive about it.  It hopefully will trigger other communities and associations to do the same."

Straschnitzki says her intention is to keep lobbying for seatbelts until all forms of transportation make them mandatory.

"Yeah, absolutely.  All sports teams, transport vehicles of any kind.  If they're taking precious cargo like ours, we want them to buckle up."

Straschnitzki says it's sad that it took a tragedy like the bus crash to get changes made but it was instrumental in getting people to act.  "It's unfortunate that it took something like this to make things change, but, that's our platform right now and we're going to take it and run with it as far as we can."

Strascnhnitzki says Ryan, who remains paralyzed from the chest down, continues to work hard at rehab and is getting stronger all the time.  He's now focused on becoming the best sledge hockey player he can be in hopes of one day representing Canada in the sport. 

Comments? Questions? Story ideas? Email us at news@discoverairdrie.com