CALGARY – Jaskirat Sidhu, aka “The Humboldt Driver,” said in his first national television interview that he’s sorry for the pain his actions caused in the massive accident that killed 13 young hockey players while injuring 16.
“I am so sorry for the pain I have caused because it was my mistake. And that pain I regret every day… seeing them every day in my dreams… losing their kids, losing their life partner, losing their brother and sister. And that happened because of me,” 32-year-old Sidhu told CTV’s W5.
On April 6, 2018, Sidhu was tasked with transporting a giant load of peat moss on tandem trailers, across Saskatchewan on unfamiliar rural roads. He had challenges from the beginning. First, his trailers got stuck in the snow and he needed to find a tow. Then his tarps came loose and he feared losing his load, and finally, at 5 p.m. while he was checking his rear view mirror to see if his ties were solid, he missed a stop sign. A chartered bus, carrying the Humboldt Broncos hockey club, was approaching the intersection and couldn’t stop in time. The two vehicles collided, killing 16 people and injuring 13 others on the bus. Canada plunged into mourning, reported CTV News.
After weeks of investigating, the RCMP charged Sidhu with 16 counts of dangerous driving causing death and 13 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. He pleaded guilty to every single charge. He didn’t offer a defence. He didn’t try to plea bargain.
“My parents taught me if you ever do something wrong, accept it. And taking [the Humboldt families] through a lengthy process was definitely going to hurt them more, not less.”
Sidhu comes from a middle-class farming family in India. He immigrated to Canada in 2014 with a degree in commerce. His then girlfriend Tanvir Mann arrived in this country the previous year after completing a nursing degree in India.
Sitting in her small apartment in Calgary, Mann said they were living the Canadian dream: “We were building our future slowly. He was working in a liquor store and I was working at Tim Hortons part time. We were trying to save some money for higher education.”
Just three months before the horrifying collision, Mann and Jaskirat became husband and wife in a fairy-tale wedding back in India.
They didn’t take a honeymoon, and returned to Canada where Mann had been accepted into a dental hygienist program in Toronto. Sidhu picked up a second job to support Mann going back to school. A friend suggested trucking and Sidhu completed a one-week training course. He then drove supervised for two weeks. When Sidhu got behind the wheel on that April day in 2018, it was one of his first solo long-haul jobs.
“Sometimes I sit and I hear the kids crying, the children crying, and I see all of the devastated pictures in my mind. And people are rushing, the firefighters, all of the first responders. Those things, they’re still with me.”
His wife never liked the fact he was driving big rigs. With tears streaming down her face she relives the phone call that changed her life: “He’s in a very bad accident. The word ‘bad,’ it broke me. I just knew that my life turned upside down right at that moment. He was crying, I was crying. He told me that there is a big loss. And he told me that he made a big mistake.”
Sidhu was sentenced to eight years in prison. Until just recently, he has been in medium security, but in August was transferred to minimum security at the Bowden Institution, 100 kilometres north of Calgary.
Courtesy CTV News
