A truck driver’s fatally negligent behavior cost two young children and a grandmother their lives, but the punishment handed down to the killer trucker appears to be far from a just sentence.
The deadly wreck occurred on April 18, 2022, when 26-year-old trucker Mehakdeep Singh, absorbed in his cell phone, smashed into a car while driving at full speed on Highway 401 in Ontario, Canada.
The hit obliterated the back of the passenger car, killing a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old. Their 68-year-old grandmother was also killed in the impact.
To make matters even worse, Singh should have never been on the road when he hit the family.
According to le Journal de Montreal, Singh was running a falsified logbook.
Because of this, the trucker was no longer licensed to drive.
At the time of the wreck, he should have been off the road for 72 hours.
Singh’s distraction, and the violent wreck that soon followed, was all captured on his dashboard camera. In the video, Singh clearly takes his eyes off the road for an extended period of time, not noticing stopped and slowed cars until it was much too late.
No lane is safe, no speed is safe.
Even when you’re at a dead stop, watch ur surroundings 💔
RIP to this Ontario grandma and her grandkids. pic.twitter.com/KQuv4hQ6Nl
— Brattani (@Bratt_world) August 22, 2024
Is Singh’s sentence just?
The tractor-trailer‘s powerful momentum is clearly seen in the video as Singh struggles to bring it to a complete stop.
According to The Recorder & Times, Singh was released on bail shortly after the wreck.
Singh was charged with dangerous driving causing death and bodily harm following the crash. In December of 2023, he was convicted of the charge and given a paltry five-year prison sentence.
Jean-Philippe Giroux, father of the children killed in the wreck, doubted Singh would serve even five years for the deadly crime.
“We suspect that he will not spend the five years in detention,” Giroux said. “My sentence is life.”
Giroux questioned Singh’s entire sentence, which by all measurements is laughably short compared to the cost of the crime.
“The number of years of detention does not change the outcome of the tragedy, but it sends a strange message,” he said. “For me, it is much more than negligence, when you drive a truck, you only have one job, and that is to watch the road.”
“For me,” he later continued, “driving with a cell phone in your hands is the same as driving under the influence of alcohol.”
