After many months of waiting, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have finally charged someone for the deaths of the Humboldt hockey players that lost their lives in a bus crash earlier this year. According to CBC News, the man arrested, Jaskirat Sidhu, was the truck driver that crashed into the bus that was conveying the hockey players in April Jarkirat Sidhu was arrested on Friday, July 6, 2018, on 13 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing injury, and 16 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death.
Investigation into the crash
Right after the accident, the vehicles were taken into custody to be examined and searched by the authorities. According to CTV News, the RCMP was talking with Crown prosecutors in June about pressing charges. Charges now are pressed against Jarkirat Sidhu after a three-month-long investigation of the crash. The RCMP superintendent Derek Williams told the press that the investigation was extensively thorough as they used "3D technology" and took around "6,000 photographs" of the crash site.
Derek Williams added that the RCMP looked over all of the aspects of the crash including the speed of the two vehicles, the point of impact, witness statements, "weather conditions," and if there was "impairment." Derek Williams mentioned that "impairment" may not be one of the reasons for the arrest and charges.
The trucking company itself was not the "focus" of the investigation. The police gave few details about how their investigations led to the arrest of Jarkirat Sidhu. Jarkirat Sidhu is in custody, and according to CTV News, is expected to appear in a Saskatchewan court within the next few weeks.
Remembering love and loss
The Humboldt Broncos hockey team were on their way to a hockey game when all of a sudden their lives came to a screaming halt.
A truck driver, unfortunately, collided with the bus carrying the kids and hockey staff. The newspapers showed pictures of the team and two of the surviving kids in the hospital. Ultimately, 16 people on that bus died, and 13 were injured. Surprisingly, the truck driver lived.
According to CTV News, the families were all briefed on Friday morning before the arrest was announced later that day.
One of the mothers, Michelle Straschnitzki, said that the arrest is a small step in the right direction. Her son was one of the "lucky ones" to live, but he remains paralyzed because of the crash. Another mother, Bernadine Boulet, who unfortunately lost her son in this accident, mentioned that she agreed with the RCMP giving Jarkirat Sidhu one count for each person on that bus. She believes this approach "gives individual faces to each victim and that they are not just part of two groups of faceless people.”
A friend of the coach that passed away in the accident, Barret Kropf, had a few words to say about the matter. He said, “For Darcy’s boys, I think every day that they step away from April 6 it just gets harder.
There’s just so many trigger points.” He then reminded everyone that this court case is going to be difficult for all the family and friends of the injured and lost victims. Barrent Kropf also made a point to "applaud" the people tasked with the investigation for the last three months.
