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Canwest News Service
Large trucks on the highway should be forced to stay only in the right lane, an RCMP crash analyst told a coroner's inquest Tuesday.
Thick spray from a passing semi-truck's tires could have played a role in the 2007 TransCanada accident that killed three greenhouse workers, RCMP Cpl. Kurt Rosenberg, a collision analyst, told the inquest.
Sarbjit Kaur Sidhu, 30, Amarjit Kaur Bal, 52, and Sukhvinder Kaur Punia, 46, died when a worker transport van collided with two trucks, then overturned in heavy rain in Abbotsford.
Jurors at the inquest heard Monday that the van, driven by transport company owner Harwinder K .Gill, lost control and hit a truck before being struck by another truck and hitting a concrete barrier.
Rosenberg said he couldn't determine whether Gill's van first hit the truck or the truck hit her van.
Police had recommended a charge of driving without reasonable consideration against the driver of the second truck, but no charge was laid.
The front tires of Gill's van had only four millimetres' depth, Rosenberg testified. He added that he would not drive his family in a vehicle with tire tread in that condition and that it was unfortunate that the law only allows police to take a vehicle off the road when tread depth drops below 3.5 mm. And a rear tire on the van, which had a retread melded on, could have been a factor in the crash, Rosenberg said.
Althought Gil bought the van without seatbelts and, by law, should have reinstalled them, the crash was so severe the three fatalities might have resulted even if all the passengers had been belted in, Rosenberg said.
Still, he laid blame for the fatalities on Gil.
"This driver was responsioble for the deaths of three people."
The inquest conitnues.
