Crown says Major 'author of this true crime story'; defence points finger elsewhere at dangerous driving trial

Lawyers for Robert Major, the Saskatchewan man on trial for dangerous driving and criminal negligence, tried to shift blame away from Major for his deadly collision with a semi in 2016 — but the Crown prosecutor on the case had a starkly different view during Wednesday's final arguments.

"[Major] is the author of this true crime story," said lead Crown lawyer Michael Pilon.

Major, 35, is charged with three counts of dangerous driving causing death, three counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, three counts of criminal negligence causing death, and three counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

His jury trial at Saskatoon's Court of Queen's Bench began on Jan. 14.

In the morning darkness of Feb. 22, 2016, Major was about eight kilometres west of Langham, Sask., driving his pickup truck north on gravel Grid Road 3083 toward Highway 16.

He had six passengers with him: his three sons and a nephew; his girlfriend, Kimberly Oliverio; and his employee Scott Eckel. None were wearing seatbelts.

After driving through the Highway 16 intersection at a recorded speed of 137 kilometres an hour — more than 50 kilometres over the speed limit — Major crashed into a semi hauling nine cars and weighing about 36,000 kilograms.

The collision propelled the semi more than 80 metres into a ditch. The battered front of Major's truck was embedded into the semi's first trailer.

Oliverio and two of Major's sons died in the crash. Both of his nephew's legs were broken and Eckel suffered brain damage.

Defence challenges key Crown evidence

Mark Brayford, one of Major's two defence attorneys, presented his arguments first on Wednesday. Brayford attempted to plant doubt in jurors' minds about several pieces of Crown evidence.

One of Major's passengers, his then-11-year-old nephew testified as a Crown witness. He said he saw his uncle on the phone during the drive, before the crash.

The nephew did not say Major appeared distracted or offer details, Brayford reminded jurors.

"Did the phone beep and Major just glance at it?" Brayford asked. "Did he make a phone call? Did he read a text?"

Major, during his testimony, denied being on the phone.

Brayford also questioned the evidence about Major's driving speed that day.

Investigators obtained the speed from the truck's event data recorder, located inside the vehicle's airbag system. According to the recorder, Major was driving at a speed of 137 km/h five seconds before his airbag burst.

Brayford said the court never heard any analysis of that evidence.

Major testified that he thought he was driving about 100 kilometres an hour that day — compared to the grid road's speed limit of 80 kilometres an hour — and that he never looked at his speedometer.

"That, I would submit, is another example of him not paying attention," countered Pilon.

The stop sign factor

A stop sign that was missing from the highway intersection on the day of the crash has been central to Major's defence.

Brayford said one of the key questions facing jurors is, "Are you sure that if that stop sign was there, that the accident would have happened?"

If not, the jury should find Major not guilty of criminal negligence, the defence lawyer argued.

"If you're comfortable he would have stopped with a stop sign, that's the end of it," he said.

Brayford then reminded jurors of the testimony from Langham-area resident Daved Meakin, whose business conducts work at a building near the highway intersection. He testified that he noticed the stop sign had been toppled two weeks before the crash.

Meakin said contractors working for SaskPower had done work in the area.

Brayford zeroed in on those contractors Wednesday.

"It's pretty clear that there's some potential criminal negligence by others," said Brayford.

"When you're a contractor, and you … snap [the sign] off, you think that person really didn't know they knocked that stop sign down? In any event, if they know they knocked that stop sign down or they saw it laying there … are they criminally negligent?"

'He chose to do all of these things'

Pilon's final argument switched the spotlight back on Major.

Major had testified that he had only driven the grid road about 10 times. But Pilon challenged the idea that Major was not familiar with Grid Road 3083 and where it joins with Highway 16.

As Pilon reminded jurors, Major testified that he travelled that road the day of the crash because he wanted to show his girlfriend, Kimberly Oliverio, the most direct route to the highway.

Major, not the stop sign, was the cause of the crash, Pilon concluded.

"He chose to put four-year-old Brendan on his girlfriend's lap in the front seat, directly in front of the airbag," said Pilon. "He chose not to put Brendan in a three-point harness."

Brendan, 4, died in the crash, alongside his brother Theo, 9.

"He chose not to make sure that anyone was wearing their seatbelt. He chose to drive in excess of the speed limit," Pilon said of Major.

"He chose to do all of these things at the exact same time while driving in the dark, on the slippery grid road covered in snow and ice."

Jury to begin deliberations Thursday

Major's family sat in the public gallery Wednesday, as it has throughout the trial.

But making his first appearance in the courtroom on Wednesday, shifting occasionally in his seat, was the one son — now seven years old — who survived the crash.

Justice Mona Dovell will give the jury — seven men and five women — their instructions Thursday morning.

Dangerous driving causing death comes with a maximum prison term of 14 years, while criminal negligence causing death could mean life imprisonment for Major.