Quebec trucker sentenced to 6 years in prison for 401 crash that killed 4
Amara McLaughlin | CBC News | Posted: November 9, 2018 11:44 PM | Last Updated: November 10, 2018
Mohinder Singh Saini, 76, 'failed to take responsibility' and denied he did anything wrong, judge said
A judge has sentenced a Quebec truck driver to six years in prison for his role in a 2015 multi-vehicle crash that killed four people and injured 11 others in Whitby, Ont., saying the convicted dangerous driver "failed to take responsibility."
Mohinder Singh Saini, 76, was found guilty of four counts of dangerous driving causing death and nine counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
The collision happened three years ago in a construction zone on Highway 401, east of Lake Ridge Road.
Saini was driving a fully-loaded commercial transport truck that failed to slow down entering a construction zone.
He was travelling almost 105 km/h when he rammed into the back of a vehicle, according to court documents. A domino effect followed, creating a 21 vehicle pileup.
Three transport trucks sustained significant damage and other vehicles, some carrying children, were struck, a police report said.
Three people, including a 12-year-old boy, died at the scene. A 10-year-old boy was pronounced dead in hospital two days later.
Police identified the victims as a Pickering couple — Carl Laws, 67, and Jacqueline Laws, 63, — and the two boys as Jesus Alberto Duran-Florez, 12, and Cuauhtemoc Duran-Florez, 10. The brothers were visiting Canada with their family from Mexico when they died.
The heartbreak of all the victims is a tragedy almost beyond comprehension. - Justice Bryan Shaughnessy
Eleven other people were injured in the crash, some severely.
"The heartbreak of all the victims is a tragedy almost beyond comprehension," Ontario Superior Court Justice Bryan Shaughnessy said in his sentencing at an Oshawa court late Friday afternoon.
'A departure of care,' judge says
The dangerous driving sentence stipulates that Saini will be banned from driving for 10 years once released from custody.
"He doesn't take responsibility for the [crash] and even put the blame on another truck driver," Shaughnessy said when delivering his decision, also noting the driver contradicted himself in court and repeatedly denied that he did anything wrong.
Throughout the trial, the judge claimed, Saini said: "The [crash] could have happened to anyone."
As Saini approached the stopped vehicles on Canada's busiest highway, the judge said, he ignored numerous signs, flashing lights and other warnings telling drivers to slow down.
"He failed to apply the brakes and observe traffic stop signs," Shaughnessy said, pointing out that traffic was reduced to a single westbound lane, from three, at the time. Saini plowed into the back of a Ford Fiesta more than one kilometre into the construction zone.
He stated: "It was a departure of care expected from a reasonable person."
Shaughnessy explained in his decision that the sentence must send a message to others — an argument that was put forward by the Crown when they asked that Saini be sentenced to seven years.
Saini had never been convicted of a criminal offence until he was found guilty on Sept. 18 and didn't have any prior driving infractions, according to the judge.