Truck involved in Humboldt Broncos crash belongs to Calgary company
Driver of the truck was not injured in April 6 crash that claimed 15 lives
The truck involved in a Saskatchewan crash that killed 15 people and injured 14 more belonged to a company based in Calgary.
A spokesperson for Alberta Transportation said the company, Adesh Deol Trucking Ltd., has an unblemished safety record in the province since being formed in September 2017, with no violations and one inspection.
Based on the Saskatchewan collision, however, the company's safety certificate has been suspended.
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Brian Mason, Alberta's transportation minister, said the investigation and suspension are standard procedure.
"This is automatic in a serious case like this and the licence of the company to operate has been suspended pending the outcome," he said. "Primarily the investigation is being conducted by the Saskatchewan Department of Transportation and the Saskatchewan RCMP and we don't want to say anything that could interfere with that."
Sukhmander Singh, who owns the trucking company, said he travelled to Saskatoon to pick the driver up after the crash and return him to his home in Calgary.
The driver — who Singh said is about 30 years old — was not injured in the crash, but Singh said it has taken a heavy emotional toll on him.
"The guy is in counselling … not sleeping well, not eating well," he said.
"Really upset. Me too. I'm sorry for this."
Singh said he had given the man two weeks of training and he had been driving on his own for that company for two weeks before the crash happened.
Singh said the driver was on his way to Melfort, Sask., when the crash happened and he was carrying a load of peat moss.
Alberta Transportation will conduct its own probe into the crash, but that can't be completed until the Saskatchewan investigation is done.
"We can look at the stuff we can look at, but of course they have the log books and so on and will have them for some time ... they're not available to us," said Mason.
The company does have one Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspection defect from the Northwest Territories for violating the federal hours of service regulation.
"This is a minor infraction," said a spokesperson for Alberta Transportation. "If it happened in Alberta, the sanction might be to ensure that the driver took time to rest."
The company operates two trucks.
The driver of the truck was not injured in the April 6 crash that claimed 15 lives and injured 14 people. The driver was detained by police for a short time in the immediate aftermath of the crash, then was released and received psychological support.
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Corrections
- Alberta Transportation initially said Adesh Deol Trucking Ltd. had been inspected twice since it formed in September 2017, but later corrected itself to say the company had only had one inspection. That was the February 2018 inspection in the NWT that found a defect, namely the hours-of-service violation, which an Alberta Transportation spokesperson described as a "minor infraction."Apr 12, 2018 3:22 PM MT
With files from Michelle Bellefontaine and Allison Dempster