New trucking operations are getting spot checks as part of changes Alberta Transportation brought in after the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash.
Officials with Alberta Transportation, on the first day of the urban traffic safety conference in Edmonton on Wednesday, provided details about their investigation into Adesh Deol Trucking, the company that hired driver Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, following the crash on April 6, 2018, near Armley, Sask., where 16 people from the hockey team’s bus were killed and 13 injured.
Joseph Cote, manager of investigations with Alberta Transportation, said the Alberta government brought in changes in the wake of the crash, including the requirement that drivers take an online program before a safety certificate is issued.
“The other thing Alberta Transportation did was require a new carrier review to be completed within their operations,” he said. “It is meant to be minimally invasive. We’re not doing a full audit on a company within their first year. We’re just doing a spot check to make sure everything is OK, that they’re not going down that wrong path and if they are, we can catch it and correct it before something happens.”
In March, driver Sidhu received an eight-year sentence after he pleaded guilty in January to 16 counts of dangerous driving causing death and 13 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
Alberta Transportation’s investigation, which ran parallel to the criminal investigation led by RCMP, focused on whether or not the carrier complied with provincial and federal legislation in the days and months leading up to the crash. Alberta Transportation found the company wasn’t complying with regulatory requirements between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2018.
Public safety investigator Charles Fox, who led the investigation into the company, said his investigation found Adesh Deol Trucking violated rules around providing driving training, vehicles missing trip inspection reports, and wasn’t properly following a safety and maintenance program.
The company was charged with eight offences including failing to require drivers to file logs, failing to provide a safety program and failing to monitor drivers to ensure they followed regulations.
The owners of Adesh Deol Trucking pleaded guilty to five of the eight charges.
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