DANGEROUS DRIVING EXPLAINED
Grieving families say they still live minute-to-minute
The charges came three months to the day after Scott Thomas saw the flashing lights in the distance, then the emergency vehicles on the highway, then the shattered hulk of the bus that was carrying his son’s hockey team.
Now, Thomas is trying to process the fact that a battery of charges have been laid against Jaskirat Sidhu, who was behind the wheel of the tractor-trailer unit when it collided with the Humboldt Broncos’ bus that night in April.
“It’s not closure by any stretch, but it’s a step toward that. I think it validated everything I believed in my heart from the minute when I pulled up on the accident scene,” said Thomas, who arrived at the intersection moments afterward.
Sixteen people, including 18-year-old Evan Thomas, were killed in the collision. Another 13 people were injured when the bus and the semi-trailer collided at a remote intersection between Nipawin and Tisdale.
On Friday, Saskatchewan RCMP announced that Sidhu, who was arrested Friday morning in Calgary, is charged with 16 counts of dangerous driving causing death and 13 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
The police force, which is keeping most of the evidence it collected under wraps until it is presented in court, acknowledged the length of the three-month probe during a news conference Friday.
“I know it’s been difficult for many to await the outcome of this police investigation ( but) this important work was necessary,” Saskatchewan RCMP Assistant Commissioner Curtis Zablocki told reporters in Regina.
Speaking from Moose Jaw, where he once played hockey for the Western Hockey League’s Warriors, Scott Thomas admitted he hadn’t spent much time over the last three months thinking about the police investigation.
“We’ve been grieving for our son every day. The thought of charges and stuff like that wasn’t really something that I thought about … I haven’t felt a lot of anger yet. Maybe that’s going to come in this next little bit,” he said.
Paul Leray, whose grandson Jacob Leicht died alongside Thomas and the others, said he was pleased charges have been laid against the driver after what he described as a “long, hard, tough, emotional” three months.
Now, the family of the 19-yearold left-winger from Humboldt has to wait again — this time for the charges laid against 29-year-old Sidhu to wind their way through Saskatchewan’s court system. He’s scheduled to make his first appearance in a Saskatchewan courtroom some day next week, RCMP say.
“It doesn’t bring our grandson back, but it might give a good warning to others who are driving vehicles of that nature, or anybody, to be more diligent with their laws of the road,” he said.
Reached by phone, Humboldt Mayor Rob Muench — who, alongside Broncos president Kevin Garinger, emerged as a bastion of strength in the face of unspeakable sorrow — said people in the community have been waiting for this.
“I know a lot of family members really needed to hear the results, so they can put some closure on this as well, and I think that will happen as the court proceedings happen,” Muench said.
At the same time, he said, others in the city 100 kilometres east of Saskatoon were looking forward to this summer, regarding it as an opportunity to take their minds off the crash and its aftermath.
“I think this may have now brought that back to the forefront again, and there will be a lot of revisiting emotions and memories in the next while,” Muench said.
Others affected by the crash said they didn’t want to speak publicly about the charges; one simply hung up the phone.
“It’s too soon,” another family member said after politely declining to comment.
The hockey club similarly declined an interview request, and instead issued a brief written statement thanking the RCMP, expressing faith in the province’s justice system, and pledging to watch closely as the process plays out.
“We will have no further comment on the investigation or the resulting charges until the process has concluded,” the Humboldt Broncos said in the unattributed statement.
“Our primary focus continues to be supporting the survivors, families and others that were directly impacted by the tragedy on April 6.”
Brady Aulie, who played hockey with Broncos assistant coach Mark Cross — who died in the crash — as a teenager and later as an adult, said the charges might bring closure for some people, but not all of them.
“(It) doesn’t change anything for me, doesn’t provide closure, doesn’t make anything any easier and doesn’t make things better. Twenty-nine families are never going to be the same and no charges can change that fact.”
Thomas, meanwhile, said he and his wife haven’t yet decided if they’ll attend Sidhu’s trial, should it come to that.
“We’re still living minute-tominute. Not even hour-to-hour. It’s minute-to-minute. It’s one foot in front of the other, stop, take a breath, deal with the challenge, and then take another step.”