Semi-truck driver Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, who struck the Humboldt Broncos team bus last April, should not have been on the road, according to a court document revealed this week.
The document shows the driver had violated 70 provincial and federal trucking regulations in the 11 days leading up to the fatal crash on April 6.
A report filed by the Saskatchewan government said Sidhu should not have been on the road at the time of the crash. If he had been stopped for an inspection on that day, he would have been placed under a 72-hour out-of-service declaration, which would have prevented him from operating a commercial vehicle.
Sidhu, 29, pleaded guilty earlier this month to dozens of charges stemming from the collision, including 16 counts of dangerous driving causing death and 13 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
Crown prosecutor Thomas Healey spoke to reporters Monday afternoon and said the case was unique in Canada.
"We haven’t seen a case like this in Canada. We believe it’s one of its kind,” Healey said.
Agreed facts laid out in court
For the first time since the Humboldt Broncos crash, details on what actually happened the night that 16 people were killed and another 13 were injured have been publicly revealed.
On Monday morning, in a makeshift courtroom set up in a gymnasium in Melfort, Sask., the Crown and defence released a statement of facts on what happened the night of the Friday, April 6 collision between Sidhu's semi-truck and the Broncos bus.
According to the document, Sidhu was driving a semi-truck carrying peat moss and travelling westbound on Highway 355 when he ran an oversized stop sign at the intersection of Highway 35.
The court heard Sidhu was not distracted by a phone and did not have the sun in his eyes at the time. A stretch of trees near the intersection were found to not have obstructed his view of the stop sign and the intersection was clearly visible before the collision. The road was not affected by any inclement weather.
Sidhu, who was driving between 86 and 96 kilometres per hour, failed to recognize the hazard and took "minimal action" to avoid the collision.
The Broncos team bus was travelling northbound on Highway 35 at approximately 96 to 107 kilometres per hour at the time with 29 people on board.
When approaching the intersection, Sidhu missed four intersection warning signs as well as the stop sign before crashing with the Broncos bus. Two highway junction signs warned the driver, along with a “Gronlid ahead/Tisdale left/Nipawin right” sign and a “Stop Sign Ahead” sign before he blew past the oversized stop sign, four feet in diameter.
The stop sign sat 19 metres from the intersection and was attached to a post with a blinking red light above it.
The driver of the bus, Glen Doerksen, applied a hard brake when he recognized the danger, and the bus skidded for around 24 metres. It then T-boned the semi-truck.
“The semi-tractor unit did not stop prior to entering the intersection. No tire skid marks due to braking were left by the semi-tractor unit,” the agreed statement of facts read.
Crown prosecutor Thomas Healey said the bus could not have avoided the collision as the semi was completely in the intersection across all lanes of traffic.
“The driver of the bus recognized the hazard as quickly as possible,” Healey said on Monday.
“The actions of the driver of the bus did not contribute to the collision,” the agreed statement of facts read.
The bus sustained “massive damage” in the collision, particularly to the front end of the vehicle. The driver and 13 passengers were killed immediately. Two others died later of their injuries in hospital.
The Humboldt Broncos bus crash took the lives of four former St. Albert Raiders hockey players: Logan Hunter, Jaxon Joseph, Conner Lukan and Stephen Wack.
The Crown has set aside five days for Sidhu’s sentencing to accommodate the large number of victim impact statements expected to be read out in court.
