Trucking company to pay $426K over fiery 2012 crash

SASKATOON An Estevan-based trucking company has been ordered to pay $426,400 to cover the costs of rebuilding two Stonebridge homes that were destroyed in 2012 when one of its vehicles drove off the highway and plowed into them.

In a written decision, Justice Shawn Smith said the court will never know what caused the accident, which left the 32-year-old driver dead. But because the trucking company, Bert Baxter Transport Ltd., cannot prove the damage did not arise through the negligence or improper conduct of its driver, it must pay damages to Duraroc Consulting Ltd., Smith said.

The crash that sparked Duraroc Consulting’s lawsuit happened in the early hours of Feb. 15, 2012.

A semi tractor-trailer unit owned by Bert Baxter Transport Ltd., driven by Anthony Dale Voth, was travelling through Saskatoon when it left Highway 11 just after passing under the Highway 16 overpass in the city’s southeast. The truck went through a ditch, over an earthen berm and crashed into a partly built home on Senick Bay more than 500 metres away, resulting in a fire destroyed that home and the one next door, which was also unoccupied.

Smith noted that an autopsy found no drugs or poisons in Voth’s system that would have affected his driving skills or consciousness. The road was dry, with some loose gravel, and was illuminated.

Bert Baxter Transport argued that the crash was caused by unforeseen circumstances and could not have been prevented by exercising normal care, and that because there is no evidence the company or its driver acted negligently, it should not be held liable.