Moments before Robert Major lost two sons and his girlfriend in a collision with a semi-truck, he was driving a route he rarely took, a Saskatoon jury heard.
Taking the stand in his own defence, Major said he’d only driven Range Road 3083 to Highway 16 about 10 times since he moved to the Langham, Sask.-area acreage in August 2014.
In the early morning darkness of Feb. 22, 2016, Major was showing his girlfriend Kimberly Oliverio, 26, an alternate route to his home with fewer dirt roads, according to his testimony Monday in Saskatoon’s Court of Queen’s Bench.
As he approached the intersection, Major said he was looking for a stop sign – but it wasn’t there.
“I said ‘holy s–t’ and then I collided with the transport vehicle,” said Major, who was tearful when talking about his late sons.
Major acknowledged none of the seven people in his truck were wearing seat belts when the pickup entered the intersection, crossed the median and T-boned a westbound Freightliner carrying two trailers filled with cars and trucks.
Oliverio was pronounced dead at the scene, along with two of Major’s sons: nine-year-old Theodore Cardinal and four-year-old Brenden Major.
Two boys and Scott Eckle, Major’s friend and employee, survived the crash.
Major faces three charges each of criminal negligence causing death, criminal negligence causing bodily harm, dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
The pickup driver told court he didn’t look at his speedometer before the crash, but estimated he was travelling 100 kilometres per hour down the grid road.
Crown prosecutor Michael Pilon rejected the notion that Major was unfamiliar with the area.
Major agreed with the prosecutor when he stated the metallic structures in the adjacent Ag in Motion farm trade show site would have been reflective and illuminated by headlights.
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Major’s ex-wife, Amanda Cardinal, was expecting the boys from Major’s truck to arrive at her house at 7 a.m. on the day of the collision.
She testified to securing four-year-old Brenden in a three-point harness whenever he rode in her vehicle.
Cardinal said Brenden never had a car seat in Major’s truck.
“So you did nothing that morning to safely secure Brenden inside that vehicle, did you?” Pilon asked Major.
“You’re correct,” Major replied.
The Crown also called Major’s nephew – who survived the crash – as a witness.
According to the nephew, the vehicle was moving “quite fast” and he saw the bright light of a phone in Major’s hand.
Performing cross-examination, defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle referenced a statement the boy gave weeks after the crash.
The witness agreed that at the time, he described the truck’s speed as “a little fast” and in 2016, the nephew told police he didn’t see the driver distracted by anything in the vehicle.
On Jan. 18, an RCMP collision reconstructionist presented data pulled from Major’s truck, which showed that five seconds before the crash, the Ram was moving at 137 km/h, which is 57 kilometres above the speed limit.
Major applied the brake immediately before the crash, slowing the pickup down to 118 km/h at the time of impact.
The reconstructionist deemed Major’s speeding truck was the cause of the crash.
The trial is scheduled to conclude Jan. 25.
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