Photo: KTW file

Kamloops provincial court

A transport truck driver whose speeding around a sharp bend on Highway 5 caused a collision that killed a Kamloops man will likely face an $1,800 fine and a three-month driving prohibition, while the family of the victim serves “a life sentence of grief.”

That’s what a judge heard Thursday after Mann Singh Purewal, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of excessive speeding.

Purewal was driving a rig north hauling two empty flat-deck trailers on Highway 5 on Feb. 9, 2023, when he failed to adequately brake for a curve in the road south of Barriere.

While rounding the turn, Purewal’s rear trailer slid into oncoming traffic and struck a southbound semi. The impact of that collision threw the flat deck into a rock face.

The trailer careened back into the oncoming lane, crashing into a pickup truck and killing its driver, Luc Thibault. The 28-year-old was returning to Kamloops with a co-worker following a surveying job.

Police determined Purewal’s speed was a contributing factor in the crash, and there was nothing Thibault could have done to avoid it.

Two of the tires on the rear trailer were also found by Mounties to be defective.

"However, the collision analyst could not find that this defect led to the collision," Crown prosecutor Evan Goulet said in court, reading from an agreed statement of facts.

The incident prompted a call from Ward Stamer, then Barriere’s mayor and now MLA for Kamloops-North Thompson, for mandatory dash cameras in transport trucks.

Lawyers presented a joint submission Thursday to Kamloops provincial court Judge Michelle Stanford that would see Purewal fined $1,800 and banned from driving for 90 days.

‘My heart broke even more'

A handful of Thibault’s grieving relatives stood in court and read victim-impact statements. He was described as well-liked and an avid outdoorsman.

His mother, Donna Thibault, recounted a visit she paid to a tow yard shortly after the crash. She wanted to say goodbye to her son, and she said workers at the facility agreed to take her to see her boy's mangled Toyota Tacoma.

"I imagined what it had to have been like for him — my heart broke even more,” she said.

"My mind filled with the devastation of this motor vehicle incident. The air was sucked out of my lungs as I could see very clearly what the impact had done to the front of the truck. I stood and cried and cried.”

Brittany McDonald had been dating Thibault for about five years when he died. He had recently purchased an engagement ring but had not yet proposed.

McDonald said her world was turned upside down by the crash and she described serving “a life sentence of grief."

“Instead of calling friends and family to tell them we were engaged, I was calling to tell them Luc was killed. Instead of planning our dream wedding, I was left to plan a funeral,” she said.

"What was supposed to have been the happiest time of our lives ended up being the darkest and most difficult period I have ever experienced.”

Lawyers will return to court on Feb. 24 to set a date for Purewal’s sentencing.