Yes, the Humboldt bus crash involved was an out-of-province trucking company with a new-to-Canada driver at the wheel.
Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, a 29-year-old from Calgary, has been charged with 16 counts of dangerous driving causing death and 13 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm for his alleged negligence in this tragedy.
Furthermore, Sukhinder Singh, the owner of Adesh Deol Trucking Ltd., was charged in October with violation of several federal and provincial safety regulations.
Sidhu had only one year of truck-driving experience and only two weeks of training at the time of the April 6th crash.
As such, Sidhu and Singh have been vilified in this tragedy — justifiably so in some cases, but less justifiably so in others.
Obviously, allegations of breaching trucking relationships are a serious problem, worsened by deadly outcome.
And by any measure now, Sidhu’s training behind the wheel was wholly inadequate. Yes, there has been a shortage of truck drivers across Western Canada. It’s a tough job requiring long hours away from home — often, for little pay.
But all drivers must be qualified — regardless of where they from.
While some have sadly chose to make this an issue of race and immigration, this is strictly about qualifications and safety.
From here, though, it gets bit complicated.
Current qualifications for a big rig trucking license in this province is a Class 1 driver’s license and air brake operation certificate.
There are no specific training requirements for training and applicants can take the test in a single day.
While Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) notes that about 90 per cent do take a professional drivers’ training course (currently the cost is in the $2,000 to $2,300 range) 10 per cent don’t and it’s not a requirement to pass.
All this takes us to one sad and unfortunate reality.
While it will be argued by many that Sidhu was inadequately trained and experienced to be driving a truck in that situation, it can also be argued that his training and qualifications were no less than many current licensed truckers in Saskatchewan — some of whom may have absolutely no training.
The government took a big step this month to rectifying that situation by requiring future truckers (as of March 15, 2019, when the new rules will be implemented) have 121.5 hours of training before testing for their Class 1 license.
However, grandfathering existing licensed truckers and exempting farm trucks from the new rules may not be helpful.
In fairness, let us be clear that the bulk of the problem is less-travel grain semi-trailers. The numbers bear this out.
SGI statistics between 2010 and 2017 show an average 1,189 collisions per year involving semi-trailer units in Saskatchewan. (These are total collisions in which the semi-driver may or may not have been at fault.)
Of those, an average mere 86 collisions a year involved semi-trailers with farm plates. However, an average of 439 collisions a year in Saskatchewan involved out-of-province plated semis.
This is because there is some validity in what SGI Minister Joe Hargrave said about farm semis being mostly used at certain times of year compared with professional truckers who may be driving 365 days a year.
That said, to completely exempt anyone from any training requirement would be the other extreme. After all, it’s not quite like Hargrave said where farmers just operate their trucks from field to bin.
There’s the safety of everyone on rural roads to consider.
So why not a compromise? How about some minimum required training for those operating farm semis that would be something short of $8,500 full course that will be required after March 15?
We need safe Saskatchewan highways for everybody. And that means ensuring everyone driving them are properly trained.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
