Driver says he was on autopilot before crash

MELFORT Crystal Gaja often finds herself standing at her window, waiting for her son to emerge from the trees on his way home for lunch — a routine she misses since Justin was killed in a construction-zone collision.

Through a victim impact statement, Lisa Skalicky said she had to leave her home because it reminded her of her son, Kristian.

Shelley Enns said she can’t set foot in her town’s grocery store, where she went shopping with her son Carter before he left for camp.

The three boys were returning home from the football camp on May 3, 2015, when a semi rear-ended their car, which was stopped in a construction zone near Spalding.

The semi driver, 41-year-old Normand Mark Joseph Lavoie, has pleaded guilty to three counts of dangerous driving causing the deaths of 14-year-old Justin, 17-year-old Carter and 15-year-old Kristian, and one count of dangerous driving causing bodily harm to flag person Sam Fetherston.

The semi was going at least 84 kilometres per hour when it hit the boys’ car, pushing it into the back of a truck, according to an agreed statement of facts. The three teens from Carrot River died on impact.

Lavoie, a truck driver from Manitoba, told a police officer he wasn’t used to the flat Saskatchewan roads and believes he was on “autopilot” before the crash.

Crown prosecutor Tyla Olenchuk said Lavoie would have missed six signs warning of a construction zone in the first 600 metres of the 1.6-kilometre zone.

Lavoie was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea after the collision, but told police: “I didn’t fall asleep behind the wheel.”

Justice Mona Dovell reserved sentencing until Sept. 11.