‘I heard the kids crying:’ Sidhu speaks at crash sentencing

Jaskirat Singh Sidhu says he didn’t realize what had happened until he climbed out of his overturned semi, crawling up through the door.

“I came out of the truck, and I heard the kids crying,” he told the families of the Humboldt Broncos.

“It took me time to realize, to see it’s a bus. I take full responsibility.”

Sidhu, the 30-year-old semi driver who pleaded guilty to causing the April 6, 2018 crash, trembled as he stood.

He faced the gallery where many families of the 16 dead and 13 injured were seated, and took nearly a minute to collect himself – breathing heavily, rocking on his knuckles firmly planted on the wooden table in front of him.

Then slowly, the words came out in an anguished, quiet tone.

“I can’t even imagine what you guys are going through, or what you have been through,” he said.

“I have taken the most valuable things of your life.”

Sidhu’s statement came on the final day of the four-day sentencing hearing, after Crown prosecutor Tom Healey recommended the judge sentence Sidhu to a 10-year prison sentence and an additional 10-year driving ban.

Healey questioned how Sidhu missed four signs on Highway 335 indicating he was approaching an intersection, noting it couldn’t have been just a momentary lapse of concentration.

“This wasn’t just an accident. This was a crime. A serious crime,” Healey said.

The Crown prosecutor argued Sidhu’s role as a professional driver was an aggravating factor, as well as the fact he was driving a larger vehicle that required more care and control.

“He failed utterly and completely,” Healey said.

“He paid no attention.”

Why Sidhu blew the stop sign

Court heard Thursday that Sidhu moved to Canada from India five years ago, following his soon-to-be wife who he married in February, two months before the tragedy.

His defence counsel Mark Brayford said Sidhu had obtained his trucking licence in August 2017, a process that took about a week.

But he didn’t get a job as a semi driver until March 17, 2018 – three weeks before the crash.

The tragedy occurred the first week Sidhu was driving a double-trailer semi on his own.

Brayford said Sidhu had driven from Calgary to Saskatoon on April 5, and stayed overnight. Then on April 6 he drove to Carrot River to collect a load of peat moss.

On his way back, one of the tarps on the peat moss came loose and began flapping in the wind.

Sidhu stopped to reattach the tarp, but when he began driving again he was still worried, and continued looking in his side mirrors to monitor it.

Brayford said his client failed to pay proper attention to the road in front of him, and suggested Sidhu was “in over his head” for driving a semi on his own so soon.

Sidhu didn’t see the bus, and didn’t realize what had happened until after the collision.

Brayford said despite the concern for the tarp, Sidhu still beats himself up everyday questioning how he didn’t see the signs and come to a stop.

He added Sidhu wasn’t fatigued, as he was described as “agile” by witnesses at the peat moss pickup point.

The defence lawyer accepted that a prison sentence would be “necessary,” but cited case law indicating a sentence between 18 months and four years.

He didn’t make a sentencing recommendation.

“It happened because of my lack of experience,” Sidhu told the families gathered.

“And I am so, so, so sorry.”

Families sobbed in the gallery through Sidhu’s statement, and hugged each other tearfully in the hallway.

One family member in the hallway said “there are no winners.”

Because Sidhu is not a Canadian citizen, if he receives a sentence of six months or more it could trigger a deportation order to return him to India.

Judge Inez Cardinal reserved her decision on Sidhu’s sentence until March 22 at the Kerry Vickar Centre in Melfort.