Coroner discusses report on Humboldt Broncos crash

The Saskatchewan Coroners Service has made a number of recommendations after investigating the April 6 crash between a semi-trailer unit and the bus carrying the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos.

Sixteen people died as a result of the accident, which occurred on a highway north of Tisdale. Thirteen other people on the bus were injured.

The coroner’s recommendations included two to Transport Canada, which was urged to mandate the installation of seatbelts on highway buses and to continue developing regulations “which enhance or improve the national safety codes with respect to driver training and electronic logging devices.”

Transport Canada is already mandating all newly built highway buses to have seatbelts by 2020, but Chief Coroner Clive Weighill would like to see all existing buses get seatbelts as well.

“It stands to reason that if people are belted into their seats, it’s a safer occurrence if they’re in an accident,” Weighill said from his office in Regina on Monday.

Weighill noted that many of the injuries came when passengers on the Broncos’ bus were ejected from their seats.

“I know there was a lot of damage done to the bus, but still people were thrown about and thrown and ejected from the bus,” Weighill said. “We can’t say for sure that (wearing seatbelts) would have made a big, substantial difference to the injuries or not but we feel that it would certainly lead to a safer environment.”

The report also encouraged SGI to work with the trucking industry to examine the idea of standardized training – and possibly mandatory training – for truck drivers.

As well, the report suggested that the Saskatchewan Highway Patrol should look “to ensure stricter compliance with respect to regulations and standards for commercial vehicle drivers.”

SGI announced more stringent training for new semi drivers in December.

The coroner also urged the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure to examine its policy regarding signs and traffic control devices at the intersection where the accident occurred.

The truck driver, Jaskirat Sidhu, is to be sentenced on March 22 after pleading guilty to 29 charges in connection with the crash.

Identification issues addressed

The coroner’s office had a recommendation for itself as well, suggesting the creation of what the report called “a mass fatality plan.” That recommendation urged a review of the procedures for identifying the deceased.

Weighill said the final draft of the plan is on his desk and should be ready in March. He added that coroners across the province will be getting additional training in May and June.

The coroner’s report also recommended that the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) should review its policy in regards to the identification of people coming into its care after “a mass casualty/fatality event.”

In the days following the crash, it was revealed that two of the Broncos players had been mistaken for each other. Authorities initially had said that Xavier Labelle had died in the crash before determining that he was alive and that his teammate, Parker Tobin, had been killed.

Weighill pointed to immense outside pressure on identifying the dead in the days that followed the crash as part of the reason for the mix-up.

“This happened on Friday night, but Sunday night, there was already a planned remembrance for the people who passed away,” Weighill said. “We were trying to identify people as quickly as we could.

“Once again, I think there is another misconception to this story. There was uncertainty of the one family; we were working with that family on the Sunday — it was set up for dental records to be examined on the Monday for a positive identification — so we had really not completed the whole process yet by Sunday night when the memorial was going to happen and (then) Mr. Labelle woke up in the hospital.

“Things will be much, much slower in the future. We will not identify anybody and put anything out until we are 100-per-cent positive.”

— with files from 980 CJME’s Arielle Zerr