By paNOW staff

Truck driver in fatal Broncos crash sentenced to eight years

Mar 22, 2019 | 11:13 AM

MELFORT, Sask. — It’s been nearly one year since the deadly Humboldt Broncos crash, and the court proceedings have now concluded with an eight-year prison sentence for Jaskirat Singh Sidhu.

Judge Inez Cardinal handed down her sentence today in Melfort provincial court, where family members and friends of the victims attended wearing Broncos jerseys.

“I want all victims and families to know their voices have been heard in these proceedings,” Cardinal said in her reasons for sentencing. “No sentence I impose will make the victims or families whole again.”

Once released from jail, Sidhu will be banned from driving for 10 years.

“The impact of this catastrophe will reverberate across Canada for years to come,” said Cardinal.

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The judge’s decision addressed the difficulties in determining the proper jail term, as this is the only case of its kind in Canada.

Among the cases Cardinal cited in her decision was that of semi-truck driver Norman Mark Joseph Lavoie who pleaded guilty to killing three Carrot River, Saskatchewan teens and seriously injuring a traffic flagger in 2015. Lavoie received a three-year jail sentence.

Cardinal said the mitigating circumstances in favour of Sidhu included his guilty plea, which spared victims the stress of a trial and the psychological impact he will deal with for the rest of his life. Those circumstances, she said, moved him out of the maximum sentence range.

The case’s aggravating circumstances highlighted the responsibilities Sidhu carried as a professional driver, and his failure to abide by five stop signs —a move Cardinal called “baffling and incomprehensible.”

“I find his moral blameworthiness to be high,” she said. “A significant period of incarceration is warranted.”

The sentencing comes after Sidhu’s guilty plea to 16 charges of dangerous driving causing death and 13 charges of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

At a hearing last January, Judge Inez Cardinal received more than 90 victim impact statements. There was little legal precedent to weigh matters for sentencing, as there are no other cases of its kind in Canada.

More to come…