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Calgary

Truck involved in Humboldt Broncos crash belongs to Calgary company

The truck involved in a crash that killed 15 people and injured 14 more in Saskatchewan belonged to a company based in Calgary with an unblemished safety record in the province.

Driver of the truck was not injured in April 6 crash that claimed 15 lives

The transport truck involved in a crash with the Humboldt Broncos bus sits at Astro Towing in Saskatoon. (Jason Warick/CBC)

The truck involved in a Saskatchewan crash that killed 15 peopleand injured 14 more belonged to a company based in Calgary.

A spokesperson for Alberta Transportation said the company,AdeshDeolTrucking Ltd., has an unblemished safety record in the province since being formed in September 2017, with no violations and one inspection.

Based on the Saskatchewan collision, however, the company's safety certificatehas been suspended.

Brian Mason, Alberta's transportation minister,saidthe investigation and suspension are standard procedure.

"This is automatic in a serious case like this and thelicenceof the company tooperatehas been suspendedpending the outcome," he said. "Primarily the investigationis being conductedby the SaskatchewanDepartment of Transportation and the SaskatchewanRCMPand we don't want to say anything that could interfere with that."

SukhmanderSingh, who owns the trucking company, said he travelled to Saskatoon to pick the driverup after the crash and return him to his home in Calgary.

The driver who Singh said is about30 years old was not injured in the crash, but Singh said ithas taken a heavy emotional toll on him.

"The guy is in counselling not sleeping well, not eating well," he said.

"Really upset. Me too. I'm sorry for this."

Singh said he had given the man two weeks oftraining and he had been driving on his own for that company for two weeks before the crash happened.

Singh said the driver was on his way to Melfort, Sask., when the crash happened and he was carrying a load of peat moss.

Alberta Transportation will conduct its own probe into the crash, but thatcan't becompleted until the Saskatchewan investigationis done.

"Wecan look at the stuff we can look at, but of course they have the log books and so on and will have them for some time ... they're not available to us," said Mason.

The company does have one Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspection defect from the Northwest Territoriesfor violating the federal hours of service regulation.

"This is a minor infraction," said a spokesperson for Alberta Transportation."If it happened in Alberta, the sanction might be toensurethat the driver took time to rest."

The company operates two trucks.

The driver of the truckwas not injured in the April 6 crash that claimed 15 lives and injured 14 people. The driverwas detainedby police for a short time in the immediate aftermath of the crash, thenwas releasedand received psychological support.

Corrections

  • Alberta Transportation initially said Adesh Deol Trucking Ltd. had been inspected twice since it formed in September 2017, but later corrected itself to say the company had only had one inspection. That was the February 2018 inspection in the NWT that found a defect, namely the hours-of-service violation, which an Alberta Transportation spokesperson described as a "minor infraction."
    Apr 12, 2018 3:22 PM MT

With files from Michelle Bellefontaine and Allison Dempster