Semi driver found guilty in fatal 2020 crash at rural Manitoba highway intersection

A semi-trailer truck driver who was involved in an accident that killed a 34-year-old man on a rural Manitoba highway five years ago has been found guilty of dangerous driving causing death.

Sukhbir Singh was charged with one count of dangerous driving causing death after he drove through a stop sign along Highway 13 in the rural municipality of Grey, about 70 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, and collided with a pickup truck in February 2020. 

He was previously convicted of dangerous driving in this case, but in 2023, an appeal court decided the original trial judge misinterpreted photo evidence, leading to a miscarriage of justice and an unfair trial.

The appeal court overturned Singh's conviction and ordered a new trial. 

In a May 14 decision, Associate Chief Justice Shane Perlmutter of the Manitoba Court of King's Bench also found Singh guilty.  

Singh was driving a semi-trailer truck south on Highway 13 around 6 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2020, and drove through a stop sign at the Highway 2 intersection, the decision said.

He was working as a delivery driver and had a valid licence to operate a semi-trailer truck. 

Road signs indicate that drivers on Highway 13 are required to stop at this intersection, while those on Highway 2 are not, the legal filing said. 

Andrew Labossiere, 34, was driving his pickup truck east on Highway 2 and hit Singh's semi on the passenger side as he entered the intersection. 

Labossiere's truck was pushed into the southwest ditch and he died.  

'Enhanced duty': Crown

The Crown argued commercial semi drivers "owe an enhanced duty" to other road users. The prosecutor said Singh's actions were a "marked departure" from the standard of care expected of a driver in his position, the decision said. 

Singh did not testify during the trial. His defence lawyers did not dispute that he had failed to stop at the intersection, nor did they argue that he hit the brakes too late to prevent the collision. 

His defence argued that the Crown's case is based on the presence of functioning warning signals — such as flashing lights, visible stop lines and unobstructed rumble strips — but evidence doesn't prove their presence at the time of the accident. 

The evidence included in Perlmutter's decision showed the stop sign had a red flashing light, but the flash pattern, wattage and how far it illuminated at the time of the crash were unknown. There is a reflective warning sign 250 metres before the intersection, with two rumble strips on the highway near this point. 

Police testified that the road was well-maintained throughout the winter and no ice was on it at the time, the decision said. 

The evidence included in Perlmutter's decision says Singh was sober and had gotten enough sleep. Cellphone analysis showed he was on an 18-minute phone call before the crash, but it wasn't clear if he was using a hands-free device. 

An accident reconstruction expert testified that Singh was going 85 km/h when the collision happened, and he hit his brakes 1.5 seconds after impact already occurred. The expert said Singh began to react a second before impact, but didn't have enough time or distance to prevent the crash.  

While the Crown argued Singh owed a greater duty of care as a semi driver, Perlmutter said it was "unnecessary" to decide on those grounds. 

Instead, his decision was based on his view that a "reasonable person" would be "highly attentive to their surroundings" while driving a semi on a dark winter morning.  

"Mr. Singh's failure to perceive and react to all of the warnings was a marked departure from the standard of care expected of a reasonable person in Mr. Singh's circumstances,"  Perlmutter wrote. 

The judge said he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Singh deviated from the level of care owed to other motorists and found Singh guilty.

"This was more than a momentary lapse of attention.  It was a failure to observe multiple warnings over several hundred feet of highway," Perlmutter wrote.