Lawsuit by Humboldt Broncos’ families dismissed by judge

A judge in Saskatchewan has dismissed a lawsuit from families of the deadly Humboldt Broncos bus crash.

In his decision last week, Judge Graeme Mitchell of Court of King’s Bench in Regina said the families’ allegations are not sound in law and lack merit.

“Even accepting all allegations in the proposed pleading to be true, it is plain and obvious that it is doomed to fail,” Mitchell wrote in the Dec. 16 decision.

In 2018, 16 people were killed and 13 injured when a rookie trucker went through a stop sign and into the path of the junior hockey team’s bus at a rural intersection near Tisdale, Sask., northeast of Saskatoon.

The truck driver, Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, was sentenced to eight years in prison for dangerous driving offences. He was also ordered to be deported to India.

The families of four players and an assistant coach who were killed in the crash filed a lawsuit in July 2018 against the province, Sidhu, the trucking company and the motorcoach business used by the team.

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One of the allegations made in the lawsuit was that the province knew the intersection had visibility problems but did nothing to fix it.

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In his decision, Mitchell cited a section of a provincial law that bars lawsuits when someone is killed or injured in a vehicle crash.

The rule is part of Saskatchewan’s insurance scheme where the province guarantees certain benefits to those hurt in a crash, but drivers give up the ability to sue.

The families had argued such a provision violates certain Charter rights, preventing them from holding the province accountable.

Mitchell said the right to life, which is covered in Section 7 of the Charter, cannot be applied to the case.

“While it may be argued that their quality of life has been radically affected by the premature deaths of their respective loved ones, this does not and cannot engage the right to life under (Section 7) of the Charter,” he wrote.

“All aspects of the proposed pleading relating to the (Automobile Accident Insurance Act) are doomed to fail and must be struck out entirely.”

The judge’s decision awards costs to the defendants at an amount that is to be determined.