Jaskirat Singh Sidhu didn't realize he had blown through an intersection until he was climbing out of the door of his semi, which was now above him, as his truck lay on its side in the intersection.
On April 6, 2018, Sidhu’s semi truck missed four warning signs for the intersection and blew through a stop sign, colliding with the Humboldt Broncos team bus. Sixteen people died in the crash and 13 suffered injuries.
Sidhu is in a Melfort, Sask., courtroom this week for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to 29 counts of dangerous driving. After three days of testimony from family members and friends of the victims, the court is hearing sentencing submissions today from the Crown prosecutor and Sidhu's defence lawyer, Mark Brayford.
While the Crown is seeking 10 years, the defence has not suggested a specific sentence, although Brayford cited cases where sentencing ranged from 1.5 to 4.5 years.
The court heard Thursday afternoon from Brayford that Sidhu had loaded peat moss onto the back of his truck and tied the tarps down onto it, something the inexperienced driver was doing for the first time.
“I suggest a classic case of his inexperience working against him,” Brayford said.
As Sidhu drove down the highway, air got under his tarps and they started flapping behind the truck. As he neared the intersection, Sidhu’s attention was on his side mirrors, where he could see his tarps flapping behind the truck.
“He describes as he is coming to the intersection ... he is focused on the issue of the tarps and the trailers,” Brayford said of Sidhu’s account of the day.
Sidhu had missed four signs alerting him to the intersection of Highway 35 and 335, as well as an oversized stop sign with a flashing red light, before he barrelled into the intersection.
“There is no evidence that he chose to drive through the stop sign, as shocking as it was,” Brayford said.
The driver had pulled over twice that day to secure his load and retie his tarps. Brayford said it was inexcusable that he continued to be distracted by something happening behind him and not focusing on the road in front of him.
Earlier that day, while travelling from Saskatoon to Carrot River to pick up the peat moss, Sidhu had become lost on the Saskatchewan highways and pulled over to use his GPS to find out out how to get to a location he had never been before. When he tried to get his truck going again, Sidhu’s semi became stuck and he was not able to get traction on the slippery side of the road.
He tried to call for assistance and find a tow truck capable of pulling him off the side of the road, but a half-ton truck came along and with a pull from the smaller vehicle, he was on his way again.
Brayford said that to Sidhu, he was in the middle of nowhere and was not familiar with the Saskatchewan roads. Sidhu lacked the skills and confidence to be driving on those roads.
“My client chose to drive without proper experience. He shouldn’t have been driving on his own, in locations that he was unfamiliar with, on secondary highways,” Brayford said.
Since Sidhu is a permanent resident and not a citizen, any sentence longer than six months would mean his deportation from Canada.
Sidhu sat in front of 10 of his supporters during the proceedings, one of the men his uncle and another his cousin.
The 30-year-old was born in 1988 on a 50-acre farm in India. Sidhu moved to a larger city for Grade 4 and went on to get a bachelor of commerce degree from that same city.
Around 10 years ago, Sidhu met his now wife, and the duo came to Toronto around five years ago. The couple was married in India in February 2018 but have no children.
On Thursday, the Crown asked the judge to consider a sentence a 10 years, to be served concurrently, for each of the counts, followed by a 10 year driving ban.
