By Canadian Press

Calgary truck company owner ‘sorry’ for hockey bus crash that killed 15

Apr 11, 2018 | 1:00 PM

CALGARY — The owner of a trucking company involved in a horrific collision that killed 16 people on the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team bus says the tragedy has upended his life and he’s not sure what the future holds for his business.

“It changed my whole life, this incident,” Sukhmander Singh told reporters outside his suburban Calgary home Wednesday.

The soft-spoken and visibly tired man said he doesn’t know what his next steps will be, as an investigation continues into the collision, which happened near Tisdale, Sask. on Friday.

“Lots of pressure on my mind,” he said. “My work is gone. My other truck is shut down now.”

Alberta Transportation said Tuesday it had ordered Adesh Deol Trucking Ltd. to keep its only other truck off the road. The move is standard when a company has been involved in a serious accident, the province said.

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Transportation Minister Brian Mason said the company started operating last fall and hasn’t had any violations or convictions and hadn’t been in any collisions, until this one.

Singh said he hadn’t spoken to the driver about what happened, but that his 30-year-old colleague had been going to the doctor every day.

Singh said the driver, whose name he did not provide, started working for him about a month ago. Singh said he and the driver, who is also from Calgary, are the only people working for the company and that the two know each other through their circle of friends.

Singh said he had checked the driver’s credentials before hiring him.

“I’m just sorry for everything,” he told The Canadian Press by phone earlier Wednesday. “Tough time for everybody.”

The Broncos were heading to Nipawin for a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff game when their bus and a semi truck carrying a load of peat moss crashed at an intersection. There were 29 people on the bus. Sixteen people died and 13 were injured.

The driver of the truck was not injured. RCMP said he was initially detained, but was released and offered counselling.

The cause of the crash is still unknown.

Saskatchewan RCMP said Wednesday officers continue to investigate. They said they have done dozens of interviews and vehicle computer data is being recovered and analyzed.

“Investigations such as this can take significant time,” the Mounties said in a release. “However, we have dedicated the necessary resources to ensure this investigation can be done as expediently as possible.”

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press