Regina trial begins for truck driver in fatal bus shelter crash

The driver of a freight truck accused of striking and killing a woman waiting in a Regina bus shelter began his trial on Monday.

Biniam Emaha is charged with dangerous driving causing death.

The crash killed 19-year-old Marvellous Ugochukwu at the transit rest stop near Dewdney Avenue and Elphinstone Street on Oct. 12, 2025.

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Regina Police Service said the freight truck was travelling east on Dewdney Avenue when the driver ran a red light and collided with a car.

Police said the truck veered onto the sidewalk, striking the bus shelter with Ugochukwu inside.

Judge Noah Evanchuk, who is presiding, set aside three days for the trial at Regina Provincial Court.

Crown lawyer Derek Davidson will call three civilian witnesses and four police officers to testify at the judge-alone trial.

Driver of car hit by freight truck recalls having “no time to react”

Emaha sat expressionless, surrounded by friends and family while the first witness was sworn in.

Elijah Stonechild testified he spent the morning of the crash watching his cousin’s basketball game at Thom Collegiate.

Afterward, he drove behind his cousin’s vehicle to the Lawson Aquatic Centre to use the gym equipment.

Stonechild was the first vehicle at the traffic light heading south on Elphinstone Street on Oct. 12, 2025.

He testified the light turned green and he turned left onto Dewdney Avenue.

“I looked to my right, and I knew it was too late,” Stonechild said. “I could just brace.”

A “box truck” barrelled into the passenger side of the vehicle, he said.

Photographs submitted into evidence showed Stonechild’s car came to rest in the middle of Dewdney Avenue with the passenger-side door dented and the hood of the car punched up.

Stonechild said he saw smoke and exited the vehicle.

“Just the adrenaline, I couldn’t think,” he said.

When questioned by Davidson, Stonechild said he remembered seeing the truck moments before the collision.

“I noticed he was not slowing down at all,” he said.

Stonechild said he suffered minor injuries in the crash, with deep-tissue bruises that caused him difficulty sleeping for a few months afterwards.

“Every time I would toss over, I would jolt up in pain,” he said.

During cross-examination, defence lawyer Foster Weisgerber questioned Stonechild about how he “couldn’t think” following the crash.

Stonechild clarified it was his “adrenaline” pumping after the collision.

He testified the airbag in the steering wheel hit him in the face, and he had a headache afterwards.

Stonechild said there were no cracks in his windshield that limited his ability to see while driving.

He had music playing at the time of the crash, but said he could still have a conversation over it if someone else was in the vehicle.

Stonechild told Weisgerber he remembered it was raining and was “pretty slick” outside.

He reiterated there was “no time to react” as the truck came through the intersection.

Photos show freight truck flattened fences and broke glass

Photos submitted into evidence show how the freight truck came to a stop on the grass along Dewdney Avenue, between a row of trees and homes.

Const. Tyler Bacon testified he was summoned to the crash scene to begin photographing evidence for the Regina Police Service Forensic Identification Unit.

Photos depict a light pole draped across the hood of the truck.

After the collision with Stonechild’s car, Bacon said the truck veered onto the sidewalk, striking the bus shelter.

Photos show broken glass and pegs were all that remained of the bus shelter.

The bolts on the Dewdney Avenue and Elphinstone Street bus shelter are all that remain after the crash. (Gillian Massie/ 980 CJME)

The images showed the truck plowed through fences on the lawns of two residential properties and came to rest near a red ramp and porch.

Bacon testified that a blue tarp near the truck represented where Ugochukwu’s body was found.

When questioned by Weisgerber, Bacon testified he “depicted the scene the best I could.”

Bacon said snow began to fall half an hour after he arrived.

When asked by Weisgerber whether photos should have been taken further back, Bacon replied he “wouldn’t have changed” his approach.

Constable Joshua Jakubowski testified he was the first officer to arrive at the crash, but didn’t find Ugochukwu when he looked around the corner of the truck.

Jakubowski said he checked to see if both Stonechild and Emaha were all right.

While he said Stonechild was “scared” and “shaken” he said Emaha was “calm” and reflecting on what happened.

He said another officer found Ugochukwu, and she was declared dead at 12:16 p.m. on Oct. 12, 2025.

Witnesses testify to hearing loud crashes as freight truck hit car

Nicole Ursu was driving to Pasqua Hospital to visit her husband when she heard three crashes behind her.

She had come to a stop while heading south on Elphinstone Street and turned right onto Dewdney Avenue.

Ursu testified that she heard a big smash, followed by two more crashes behind her as she drove west.

“It was very loud,” she said. “I have never heard anything like it.”

Ursu pulled into a parking lot to see what happened.

She said she saw a large white truck on the lawns of homes on Dewdney Avenue.

The driver testified she decided to file a police report on what she saw a few days later, but did not speak to police on scene.

Camryn Lehne was driving her car west on Dewdney Avenue to her grandparents’ house.

She said she was pulling up to the Elphinstone Street intersection when a white delivery truck hit a car that was turning left.

“The car did almost like a 360, or a 180, I guess,” Lehne said.

Lehne veered the car out of the way to avoid being hit, she said, and parked in the furthest lane to the right.

As she went to check on the driver of the car, Lehne’s mother called 911. Lehne said she heard no honking or yelling before the crash.