A Southwestern Ontario trucker has been convicted of a charge linked to a crash that sent two transport truck drivers to hospital – one of them in critical condition – and closed Highway 402 in Sarnia for several hours.
But in an odd twist, Harpreet Kang’s sentencing has been held up by a charitable donation.
The collision took place shortly before 1 pm on March 23, 2021, near the Christina Street exit, about two kilometers before the Blue Water Bridge. A Sarnia courtroom last week heard Kang, a 38-year-old Ancaster resident, was hauling large concrete slabs as he headed towards the border between the Sarnia area and Michigan that Tuesday afternoon.
A witness told police he’d been driving parallel with Kang’s truck at 90 kilometers per hour prior to the speed limit dropping to 70 km/h on the approach to the bridge.
“The witness slowed down, Kang did not,” assistant Crown attorney Lori MacIntosh said.
A long lineup of trucks was parked on the highway waiting to cross the border and Kang crashed into the back of a transport truck with a trailer full of garbage.
“The damage was extensive,” MacIntosh said.
Emergency responders were called and paramedics took two drivers to nearby Bluewater Health, but Kang was transferred to Victoria Hospital in London.
“As he was in critical condition,” MacIntosh said.
The other driver was treated for minor injuries and released, while the highway was closed for several hours amid an investigation. Two days later, Lambton OPP announced Kang was charged with careless driving causing bodily harm under the Highway Traffic Act.
Twenty months later, Kang, through paralegal Chandni Jutla, pleaded guilty in a Sarnia courtroom late last week to a reduced charge of failing to turn out left to avoid a collision under the same legislation. Both sides suggested the maximum $1,000 fine along with a $1,000 donation to a charity, which is suggested fairly regularly in provincial offenses court. But the case was held up as Kang hadn’t made the donation prior to the guilty plea.
Kang, who now lives in Brampton, wasn’t in the courtroom as Jutla represented him. Justice of the peace Helen Gale adjourned the case to mid-January to make sure he follows through with the donation.
“This is critical,” she said.
Earlier this month, a Waterloo trucker was convicted following a lengthy trial of careless driving causing death linked to a crash near the same spot on the highway three years ago.