Over the course of an hour and a half, Sidhu answers most questions with an apology first: "I am so sorry for the pain I have caused because it was my mistake. And that pain I regret every day... seeing them every day in my dreams… losing their kids, losing their life partner, losing their brother and sister. And that happened because of me."
"Sometimes I sit and I hear the kids crying, the children crying, and I see all of the devastated pictures in my mind. And people are rushing, the firefighters, all of the first responders. Those things, they're still with me."
His wife never liked the fact he was driving big rigs. With tears streaming down her face she relives the phone call that changed her life: "He's in a very bad accident. The word 'bad,' it broke me. I just knew that my life turned upside down right at that moment. He was crying, I was crying. He told me that there is a big loss. And he told me that he made a big mistake."
While Sidhu didn't mount a defence at his criminal trial, he is fighting now. This time, for the right to stay in Canada.
Scott and Laurie Thomas have not only forgiven Sidhu, they are actively working to keep him in Canada.
"We sent some letters to his lawyer saying our family doesn't think that he needs to be deported. That doesn't need to be the necessary conclusion to how this all ends."
Their anger is not directed at the man who caused their son's death, but at the industry that put him behind the wheel. A W5 investigation reveals an ongoing and a potentially deadly lack of oversight of truck driver training schools, three years after the tragedy.
Scott Thomas sees a day when he and Sidhu are standing on a stage together demanding action.
"If Mr. Sidhu's in Canada and there's an opportunity... for us both to speak together about what happened and how we can make a better place out of this, I think there's an opportunity for Canada to be better for sure, much more so than sending them home."
Jaskirat Sidhu, the 'Humboldt Driver,' speaks out
the 'Humboldt Driver,' speaks out
Discussion in 'Canadian Truckers Forum' started by tinytim, Oct 2, 2021.
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I'm making plans to depart Canada permanently within the next 3 years. Mr. Sidhu is welcome to enjoy this post-nationalist authoritarian dystopia if they so let him. I won't be here to argue over parking spaces, equidistant social distancing, politics, or otherwise. I'm seen enough, had enough, and I'm out of here. So help me God.
ProfessionalNoticer, BigHossVolvo, austinmike and 2 others Thank this. -
The mandatory entry level training sounded like a step in the right direction but things certainly aren’t improving out on the roadways.
Hardly a day goes by in either BC or Northern Ontario where the highway isn’t closed as a result of some ridiculous move a made by a supposed trained truck driver.joey8686, BigHossVolvo, Mototom and 5 others Thank this. -
I have a driver completing melt for a bus driver.
The melt is too narrowly focused..
For the allotted time of in vehicle training they end up driving around aimlessly learning how to pass a test.
It's the company and employers responsibility to ensure the driver is trained enough to safely do the job.Isafarmboy and AModelCat Thank this. -
We got ELDs this spring, they installed it in my truck and said, there you go, have at it.
No instruction book, no PDF, nothing. Just, you’ll figure it out.austinmike, Flint1, gentleroger and 1 other person Thank this. -
As unbelievably tragic as it was, all the extra hours you add onto the training courses and adding things like MELT will not make you cognitive enough to stop at a stop sign if you are a poor driver and not paying attention. Everything that happened was horrific beyond my my wildest comprehension but the Government made one hell of a knee jerk reaction to the situation.
Canadianhauler21, Weekend Warrior, aaronpeterbilt3787 and 1 other person Thank this. -
Here’s the problem…..and I read the article about one of the families support him and their ideas about how the industry should move towards higher training standards and entry level standards.
They think the industry should be federally regulated. It was at one time. They de-regulated it. They think it should be recognized as a skilled trade (which I agree with), but along with higher education standards and skilled trade stays comes higher wages. Which will bring about a larger driver shortage. Which will bring higher operating costs in wages. Which will bring higher costs passed on to the consumer. Does anyone really think the public will accept paying $11 for a head of lettuce? And so on and so on.
Here’s the reality of it. The general public hates trucks and have no real comprehension of how the system and logistics work. Even the reporter couldn’t refer to the equipment he was operating in the proper terms. It was a b-train. Not a “double load”. That in itself opens a whole other can of worms.
Why do we even have B-trains? Why are we hauling 90,000 lbs on a deck and wrecking our roads? Why not go to a USA model of 80,000 lbs gross and save our infrastructure? A “double load” certainly doesn’t pay double, that’s for sure.
If the public wants federal regulation in terms of HOS and training……then they darn well better expect federal mandated wage increases and rates. It goes hand in hand.joey8686, peterd, Canadianhauler21 and 5 others Thank this. -
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The way things are going, we'll soon be back to the horse and buggy. And of course autonomous trucks with robots behind the wheel. It'll be me and you riding a horse, and a robot in all the comforts. That's deregulation. It also shifted profits away from the worker and onto the corporation/shareholders. So it made us mere wage-slaves without much leftover profit to invest or put into savings otherwise. Just like the 3rd world, a handful of people at the top hoarding all the money, while the bottom 99% work themselves into an early grave.
In a race to the bottom, only the elites at the very top win. They get the money, we lose our health, vitality, sometimes life. I think another leak came out just yesterday, "Pandora Papers", outlines where and how the rich hide their money. Who's money do you suppose that is? Labor generated, of course. We spun the wheel, we did the work, and the accumulated profits from the labor of our society are sitting in some off-shore account in the Caymen Islands.
Pandora Papers - ICIJjoey8686, ProfessionalNoticer, peterd and 3 others Thank this. -
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