FIRST READING: Indian trucker given $2,000 fine for fiery crash that killed two

And it was also in April that a B.C. judge gave 90 days of house arrest to trucker Dalvir Singh Jhattu for a 2023 B.C. crash that, according to police, could have easily have killed multiple people. Photo by RCMP

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For causing a fiery crash just north of Kamloops, B.C., that killed two people, a non-citizen trucker will be required to pay $2,000 and undergo 18 months of probation.

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And the B.C. case is just the latest in a string of recent Canadian court decisions where a trucker was handed a controversially lenient sentence for causing a fatal crash, often due to inattention.

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In January, trucker Lovepreet Singh was sentenced to nine months in jail for driving his truck at full speed into a Toyota Corolla slowing for a construction zone. A brother and sister trapped inside the burning car were killed.

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Earlier this month, Ontario trucker Sukhwinder Sidhu was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for a similar collision in which he plowed his rig into cars stopped at a construction site, killing former Canadian ice dancer Alexandra Paul.

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Just two weeks ago, a Thunder Bay, Ont., judge granted an absolute discharge to Indian trucker Ajitpal Singh for causing a fatal head-on collision with another trucker. In that case, Singh’s sentence was explicitly made light so that he would avoid deportation to India.

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It was in April that a Federal Court judge deferred the deportation of Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, the trucker who killed 16 members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team in 2018 by speeding through a stop sign.

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In a decision condemned by several families of Humboldt Broncos victims, Sidhu — who served three-and-a-half years of an eight year sentence for the crash — was granted a 17-month pause in deportation proceedings so that he would have time to seek a permanent stay of deportation on “humanitarian and compassionate” grounds.

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And it was also in April that a B.C. judge gave 90 days of house arrest to trucker Dalvir Singh Jhattu for a 2023 B.C. crash that, according to police, could have easily have killed multiple people.

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Jhattu drove his tractor trailer at full speed into a tow truck that was in the midst of attaching a Mercedes that had been impounded by the RCMP.  After Jhattu’s sentencing, RCMP released a video of the collision as part of its Slow Down, Move Over campaign.

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“Luckily the tow truck operator, the police officer, and the Mercedes driver were safely off to the side of the road, or they would certainly have been killed,” Corporal Michael McLaughlin with the BC Highway Patrol said in an accompanying press statement.

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In the most recent sentencing decision out of Kamloops, Harpreet Singh pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention in an April 2024 crash where his tractor trailer crossed the centre line and collided with a CN Rail work truck. Both vehicles would explode into flames after colliding.

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