Truck Driver in Hockey Team Bus Crash Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison

The driver involved in Humboldt Broncos bus crash last April in Saskatchewan, Canada, Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, was sentenced to serve eight years in prison. He will be deported back to his native India after the sentence is served.

Sidhu pleaded guilty in January to 16 charges of dangerous driving causing death and 13 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm following a crash involving a motorcoach carrying the Humboldt Broncos hockey team.

The truck driven by 30-year-old Sidhu ran a stop sign and rammed the bus from the side as it passed through an intersection. Sidhu had failed to observe four warning signs leading up to the stop sign.

The judge in the case, Inez Cardinal, said during the sentencing hearing that she found Sidhu’s blameworthiness to be “high,” adding "It is baffling and incomprehensible that a professional driver could miss so many markers over such a long distance."

Sidhu was actually sentenced to serve eight years on each of the dangerous driving causing death charges and five years on each charge of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. He will serve the sentences concurrently.

Because Sidhu is a permanent resident of Canada and not a Canadian citizen, he will be deported after serving his sentence. 

The StarPhoenix newspaper quoted the father of Broncos assistant coach Mark Cross, who died in the crash, saying his family was somewhat indifferent over the eight-year sentence.

“It didn’t really matter, to us. If it would have been two years, I might have been concerned,” he said. “But what’s the number supposed to be? We want to see driving attitudes changed. Should the accident have happened? Absolutely not. But it did. And maybe we can learn something from that. I hope so.”

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