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Grid road leading to Robert Major crash site 'like driving in a dark tunnel,' defence witness testifies

Robert Major sentenced to 7 years in prison for fatal 2016 Sask. highway crash

A collision expert called by Robert Major's defence team at his trial Tuesday says that the grid road Major travelled before his deadly highway collision with a semi was "like driving in a dark tunnel."

Major, 35, is at the centre of a dangerous driving trial taking place in Saskatoon's Court of Queen's Bench.

He's charged with:

  • Three counts of dangerous driving causing death.

  • Three counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

  • Three counts of criminal negligence causing death.

  • And three counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

In the morning darkness of Feb. 22, 2016, Major was driving his pickup truck north on gravel Grid Road 3083, toward Highway 16, about eight kilometres west of Langham, Sask.

Major had six passengers with him: his three sons and a nephew; his girlfriend, Kimberly Oliverio; and an employee, Scott Eckel. None were wearing seatbelts.

After driving through the Highway 16 intersection at a recorded speed of 137 kilometres an hour — more than 50 kilometres over the speed limit — Major crashed into a semi hauling nine cars and weighing about 36,000 kilograms.

The collision propelled the semi more than 80 metres into a ditch. The battered front of Major's truck was embedded into the semi's first trailer.

Oliverio and two of Major's sons died in the carnage.

Video simulation

A stop sign that should have been up and facing Major before he reached the intersection has been at the centre of the trial. The sign had been knocked down two weeks before and remained in the ditch on the day of the crash.

Had the sign been up, its reflection would have been visible to Major from a distance of 700 metres, Malcolm Gibson told the court Tuesday.

"Driving on Grid 3083 is like driving in a dark tunnel," said Gibson, a retired collision reconstructionist for the Saskatoon Police Service. He was hired by Major's defence team and first visited the crash site last November.

Last week, on the evening of the third day of the trial, Gibson recorded two videos on Grid Road 3083 that attempted to simulate what it might have been like for Major to drive north on the road, approaching the highway, in the dark.

Major was in the back seat, and confirmed to Gibson that he could begin seeing the reflection of the since-reinstalled stop sign from a distance of about 700 metres.

Gibson also took photos some distance from the highway, outside a car. One of the photos was shown in court. The front gates of an agricultural exhibition centre located at the corner of the intersection, plus the lights of a passing car on the highway, are visible in the photo.

Reaction time

The jury previously heard that Major hit his brakes 1.2 seconds before he slid into the semi.

Gibson testified that if the stop sign had been up, and if Major had seen the sign from 700 metres away, Major would have had 11.5 seconds to try to come to a stop.

Later, under cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Michael Pilon, Gibson agreed that if Major had been driving the legal speed limit the morning of the crash — 80 kilometres an hour — instead of his recorded speed of 137 kilometres an hour, the collision with the semi would not have happened.

Testimony at the trial wrapped shortly after Gibson testified. Lawyers are expected to make their final arguments Wednesday morning. The jury may begin its deliberations Wednesday afternoon.

Dangerous driving causing death comes with a maximum prison term of 14 years, while criminal negligence causing death could mean life imprisonment for Major.