Humboldt Broncos bus crash lawsuit dismissed

A lawsuit over the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash was tossed out of court this month.

The suit was originally filed just a few months after the crash, which happened in April of 2018. A semi driven by Jaskirat Singh Sidhu ran a stop sign on Highway 335 and continued into Highway 35 and into the path of the charter bus carrying the SJHL hockey team.

Sixteen people were killed and 13 others were seriously hurt in the crash.

Sidhu pleaded guilty to 16 counts of dangerous driving causing death and 13 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. In 2019, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for each of the former counts and five years for each of the latter counts, with all of the sentences to be served at the same time. He was eventually ordered deported to India, but court proceedings around his deportation are still in limbo.

The lawsuit was filed in July of 2018 by family members of Adam Herold, one of the players who died in the crash. Four more plaintiffs – the families of Jaxon Joseph, Logan Hunter, Jacob Leicht, and Mark Cross – later joined the case.

The lawsuit advanced claims of negligence against the Government of Saskatchewan and the company that manufactured the bus the team was in, along with both Sidhu and the company that he was working for at the time.

Among the original claims in the suit were allegations that Sidhu ignored the slower speed leading up to the intersection, that he wasn’t trained or skilled enough to be driving the truck, and that the bus the team was on was defective. The claim also alleged that there were safety issues at the intersection where the crash occurred.

None of the claims were ever proven in court, and none of the defendants filed a statement of defence.

The original filing called for damages to pay hospital and medical expenses, funeral expenses, and reimbursement for the time Herold’s parents had to take off work.

In the Dec. 16 decision, Justice Graeme Mitchell wrote out the facts of the crash and its aftermath, making a point of detailing the $15,172,948 raised in a GoFundMe campaign, which was handed out to the victims, resulting in families of the deceased receiving $525,000 each.

The Humboldt Broncos pose after a win over the Melfort Mustangs on March 24, 2018. (Humboldt Broncos/X)

All of the defendants moved to strike the action in its entirety, saying the laws in Saskatchewan bar such a suit, and Mitchell agreed.

Through SGI, Saskatchewan drivers have no-fault insurance. That means people get all their needs taken care of through SGI if they’re in a motor vehicle crash, but it also means people can’t sue for damages resulting from a crash.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers tried to argue those laws violate their Charter rights, but the point wasn’t well taken by the court.

“The plaintiffs assert that s. 40.1 impairs their right to ‘life’. There is no merit to this argument. There is no assertion in the Proposed Pleading which would remotely suggest that the ‘life’ of any of the named plaintiffs is impaired or imperilled by the statutory bar,” Mitchell explained in his decision.

“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 s. 7 of the Charter.”

As a result, the plaintiffs’ arguments were struck and Mitchell dismissed the suit.