Three months after the Humboldt Broncos team bus crash, RCMP have laid charges.
At a press conference Friday, RCMP representatives said Jaskirat Sidhu, 29, is charged with 16 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and 13 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm.
The bus crash took place on April 6 at an intersection of Highway 35 and Highway 335 between Tisdale and Nipawin.
Sidhu, who according to RCMP is from Calgary, Alta., was arrested Friday morning without incident. Sidhu was remanded to custody.
Sidhu’s first court appearance is in Melfort Provincial Court Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.
“It was difficult for many to await the outcome of the investigation,” Assistant Commissioner Curtis Zablocki said, adding the time taken was necessary for police.
Superintendent Derek Williams, officer in charge of F Division Major Crimes Unit, said a number of aspects of the collision were under investigation, and the time between the crash and the charges was due to the time it took to gather facts and expert reports.
The charges Sidhu is facing are found in section 249 of the criminal code.
“Every one commits an offence who operates […] a motor vehicle in a manner that is dangerous to the public, having regard to all the circumstances, including the nature, condition and use of the place at which the motor vehicle is being operated and the amount of traffic that at the time is or might reasonably be expected to be at that place.”
The maximum sentence for dangerous operation causing bodily harm is 10 years, while the maximum sentence for causing death is 14 years.
Williams said a core team of 20 investigators was supplemented by 100 other investigators.
A collision reenactment took place in April, and RCMP conducted more than 60 interviews, took more than 6,000 photographs and analyzed all available documentation, including the driver log book, Williams said.
RCMP also considered, Williams said, point of impact, position of the vehicles, impairment, road and weather conditions and witness evidence.
RCMP officials met with families Friday morning in Saskatoon, Edmonton and via video stream, Williams said, to inform family members of the investigation’s outcome.
Williams took questions from reporters. One reporter asked for the difference between the offences of “driving without due care and attention” and “dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.” The former is “a traffic offence,” Williams said (which is found in provincial legislation), while the latter is a violation of the criminal code.
One reporter asked what someone must do to warrant such charges, as opposed to comparably less severe traffic violations.
“The circumstances of just driving through [a stop sign] are different,” Williams said. “The circumstances of the evidence in the investigation and our consultation with [the Crown] that led us to laying criminal charges in this case.”
Williams didn’t elaborate on the circumstances, and didn’t answer a number of questions from reporters, saying the case is “before the courts.”
