Truck Driver Who Caused Humboldt Broncos Crash Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison

The bus crash killed 16 members of the Broncos junior hockey team.

The truck driver responsible for the fatal Humboldt Broncos bus crash has been sentenced to eight years in prison, the Canadian Press reported on Friday.

According to the outlet, Melford provincial court Judge Inez Cardinal delivered her decision on Friday and determined 30-year-old Jaskirat Singh Sidhu's fate. Sidhu was involved in the April 2018 rural Saskatchewan collision that killed 16 people and injured 13 others. The crash was caused after Sidhu barreled through a stop sign and into the path of the junior hockey team’s bus at an intersection.

Cardinal said nothing was blocking Sidhu's view when he failed to see five signs, the bus or the intersection.

“Somehow, we must stop the carnage on our highways,” Cardinal said in court documents. “Attention to the road matters. It is baffling, and incomprehensible, that a professional driver, even one with little experience, could miss so many markers over such a long distance,” she wrote in her decision.

In January, Sidhu appeared in court and pleaded guilty to 16 counts of dangerous driving causing death and 13 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. 

Cardinal said that Sidhu’s remorse and guilty plea were mitigating factors when determining the sentence, but she "had to consider the number of people who died or were severely injured and face lifelong challenges."

Back in September, the team played in its first game since the crash and honored the victims in a postgame ceremony.