Stop sign would have saved lives

Robert Major says he wasn’t taking his usual route on the morning when he crashed into a semi on Highway 16, forever changing his life and ending the lives of three other people.

It was dark as he drove down Range Road 3083 on Feb. 22, 2016, with his three sons, his girlfriend, a nephew and a co-worker inside his truck, Major testified on Monday during his jury trial in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

He was taking his kids to their mom’s house in Langham before heading to work in Saskatoon, and wanted to show his girlfriend, Kimberly Oliverio, the shortest way to get back to his acreage.

Major said he’d only taken the route about 10 times and on any other day, he would have taken a series of back roads instead. By the time he realized he was at the intersection, it was too late, he testified.

The jury has heard a stop sign at the southeast corner of Range Road 3083 and Highway 16 had been previously knocked down. Were there a stop sign, Major would have stopped and his two sons and girlfriend would still be alive, defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle said in his opening statement to the jury.

Oliverio, 26, four-year-old Brenden Major and nineyear-old Theodore Cardinal died. Major, 35, is charged with three counts each of criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm, plus and three counts each of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Major was the first defence witness to take the stand after the Crown closed its case on Monday. The trial is in its second week.

He said he didn’t know where he was or who was in his truck when he regained consciousness. Major wept as he described hearing his youngest son take his last breath. He said he called Oliverio’s phone, only to hear it ringing inside the truck.

During cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Michael Pilon suggested to Major that he didn’t see the intersection because he was using his cellphone. Major said that wasn’t the case, although his nephew testified on Monday that he saw a phone in Major’s hand.

Major said he didn’t know how fast he was driving, but guessed it was around 100 km/h. A collision reconstructionist testified earlier that Major’s vehicle was going 137 km/h five seconds before impact, on a road with a speed limit of 80 km/h.

Major admitted that his speed and the decision to overload his truck with people — and his failure to properly restrain his children — had nothing to do with the missing stop sign.

“Those were your choices,” Pilon said. “Correct,” Major replied. He agreed with the Crown that it’s possible to stop a vehicle at an intersection that doesn’t have a stop sign, but said he didn’t know the intersection was coming up because he was in a “cloud” of fog. A stop sign, he said, would have helped.

Const. Aaron Rushton testified on Monday that shortly after the crash, Major asked about the missing stop sign and the semi driver’s level of fault. Rushton said he told him that drivers are still expected to stop at uncontrolled intersections.