Humboldt truck owner fined $5K for violations

CALGARY • Calling it “the end of a very, very sad tale,” provincial court Judge Sean Dunnigan on Wednesday fined the Calgary owner of the trucking company involved in the deadly Humboldt bus crash for failing to follow safety rules.

“There’s clearly an issue about monitoring,” Dunnigan said, after Crown prosecutor Deanna Smyth detailed violations under federal and provincial transportation regulations in the three months leading up to the crash last April 6.

Sukhmander Singh of Adesh Deol Trucking was not in court when his lawyer pleaded guilty on his behalf to five charges under the Motor Vehicle Transportation Safety Act and Alberta’s Traffic Safety Act.

Singh, 37, was fined a total of $5,000 for failing to maintain daily driver logs, neglecting to ensure his drivers complied with safety regulations, lacking a written safety program and keeping more than one daily logbook.

Court documents showed the offences occurred between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2018 — prior to the fatal crash on April 6.

Smyth and defence lawyer Sadaf Raja presented a joint recommendation for the $5,000 fine, $1,000 for each breach, a proposal accepted by the judge.

“This should serve as a warning to other owners of truck companies,” said Dunnigan. “This is a serious business, and we see why with tragic results.”

Sixteen people died and another 13 were injured when truck driver Jaskirat Singh Sidhu ran a stop sign on a rural Saskatchewan highway and collided with the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team bus.

Sidhu, 30, was sentenced last week to eight years in prison.

Smyth said none of the offences against the trucking company owner related to the crash. “These charges are not to do with that offence,” she told Dunnigan.

Smyth said the maximum fine for an individual under the federal legislation is $5,000 for each charge and $2,000 for the provincial offence.

Had the company been charged, fines could have been much higher, but Adesh Deol is no longer in business, the prosecutor said.

Raja told Dunnigan the case has been devastating to Singh, who came to Canada from his native India in 2012, and to his family.

Her client is now unemployed and can’t find work “as a result of the media attention.”

Outside court, Raja reiterated that Singh’s charges were not related to the crash.

“These were administrative, regulatory type of charges, this wasn’t a criminal act,” she said. “Although they seem like they’re tied ... they’re not really directly tied.”

She said Singh remains quite remorseful for what occurred.

“We were all saddened by what took place ... it’s hockey, it’s Canada, we all related to it in some way,” she said.