Year later, a cautionary tale

Gerald L Harrison 

IN 2012, a young Punjabi man emigrated to Canada to pursue his dreams. In early 2018, he was hired by a Punjabi-owned and operated trucking firm in the neighbouring province of Alberta. With only three weeks training, he ended up driving on the highway big rig for which he was ill-prepared.

On April 6, 2018, on a rural highway in Saskatchewan, he was distracted by his load tarp coming loose. He subsequently drove through at least four intersection warning signs and an oversized stop sign equipped with flashing lights. His failure to stop put his 30-m-long tractor-trailer unit in the path of a bus carrying a local hockey team to a scheduled game.

Travelling at highway speed at night, the bus broadsided the truck and was destroyed. The force of the collision knocked over the truck and spewed its cargo some 50 m in all directions.

When the driver extricated himself from his overturned vehicle, he was shocked at the carnage he had caused. Sixteen young men, their coaches, their physiotherapist, and the bus driver were killed instantly and 13 others with various injuries are still recovering.

A “Go-Fund-Me” page eventually raised some $15 million dollars in aid of the affected families as donors from around the world responded to this disaster.

The truck driver admitted guilt and elected to avoid a trial in order to spare the affected families’ further trauma. Many of the parents appreciated this gesture, some spoke with him, and most forgave him his grievous error, but a few did not. Many also worried about the effect this would have on the driver’s family.

In mid-March of 2019, the errant driver was sentenced to eight years in prison and banned from driving for 10 years after his release. But since he is not yet a Canadian citizen, he faces possible deportation to India when released from prison. The trucking firm he worked for is facing numerous charges such as failure to keep proper log books and failure to provide proper driver-safety training. The firm is now out of business.

 Wearing seatbelt in Saskatchewan is the law and violators face heavy penalties. Accordingly, seatbelt compliance in Saskatchewan is about 90 per cent or higher. While this bus had seatbelts, no one was wearing them. Rescue workers on the accident scene had to cut the bus apart to reach victims thrown from the vehicle and crushed underneath it. The crash has strongly affected some of the rescue workers as well.

Saskatchewan is an agricultural province like Punjab but is some 13 times larger. The long open roads with low traffic density can lull drivers into complacency and people sometimes take chances like ignoring traffic signs.

Though Saskatchewan’s accident rate is far, far lower than India’s, it turns out that commercial truck-driver training has not been compulsory in all provinces until now. Beginning April, new drivers will require about 120 hours of driver training in class and on the road before being licensed. Seatbelts will now be required in all buses and must be worn. Some companies have retrofitted older buses with seatbelts.

Also, organ transplant donations have surged because one of the players killed had registered himself as a donor. His tearful family proudly reported that their son's organs have helped six individuals to date.

As a fairly regular reader of the Chandigarh Tribune online, I read of traffic deaths caused by poor driving skills and immature driver attitudes in and around Chandigarh. Pedestrians and two-wheelers seem to be treated as targets and during a mishap, the errant drivers often run away only to be caught later by the police. So far, defensive driving seems to be an alien concept to the growing number of immature drivers terrorising the UT roads.

I love visiting India and thoroughly enjoy the warmth of its people and its spectacular culture. But I refuse to drive in an environment of avoidable chaos that results in numerous deaths.

Canada generally welcomes immigrants as they enrich our country with knowledge and valuable skills. But sometimes they bring bad habits as well. For anyone emigrating to Canada, please be forewarned. If you intend to drive in Canada, take a driver-training course upon arrival. It will help keep you and others alive.