Charges laid in crash near Spalding that killed 3 teenage boys in May

Charges have been laid in a Spalding-area crash that left three teenage boys dead back in May.

Justin Gaja, 14, Kristian Skalicky, 15, and Carter Stevenson, 17 — all from Carrot River — died on May 3 after the car they were in was rear-ended by a semi in a construction zone south of Spalding. Their car was pushed into another vehicle, which struck a 21-year-old man working as a flagperson.

Shortly after the crash, RCMP said the investigation would take months.

“Investigations take as long as they take, especially when they’re complex involving multiple vehicles, and just the circumstances of a collision,” said RCMP spokesperson Mandy Maier on Friday as Mounties announced charges against the man driving the semi truck.

Normand Mark Joseph Lavoie, 28, of Winnipeg, MB faces three charges of criminal negligence causing death and one charge of criminal negligence causing bodily harm. He made his first court appearance on the charges Friday morning in Melfort.

The RCMP didn’t give any more details about the crash.

Improving highway safety

The provincial government says it is always looking at improving highway safety.
 
“We always take a continuous improvement view, and we’ll always be looking at ways we can make work zones safer,” Doug Wakabayashi with the Ministry of Highways told the media on Friday.

He said since the death of Ashley Richards, the pregnant flag person who was killed in 2012, the ministry has made several improvements. He said there are three Es that are talked about when it comes to highway safety.
 
“Education, enforcement, and engineering, and we’ve implemented things across all three of those Es.”
 
Wakabayashi noted improvements like simplified signage in work zones, new safety devices like gates at the beginning of work zones, and photo radar, along with continuing public education campaigns.

With files from CJME’s Lisa Schick and Courtney Markewich.