Robert Major admits responsibility for speeding and not buckling in his kids before deadly crash
The accused in a Saskatoon trial has admitted during cross-examination that he, and not a missing stop sign, was responsible for his speeding and failing to buckle in his children before a deadly highway crash that killed three people.
"The stop sign had absolutely nothing to do with how fast you were travelling down that road," Crown prosecutor Michael Pilon said to defendant Robert Major in a Queen's Bench courtroom Monday.
"I guess you're right," replied Major, who is charged with a dangerous driving and criminal negligence causing death and bodily injury.
"And you'll agree with me that the stop sign didn't force you to put your two youngest, smallest kids on the front seat, even though motor vehicle restrictions say don't do that because airbags are a risk to children? That wasn't the stop sign's fault. That was all your choice."
"That's correct," said Major.
Major, 35, is 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: three sons and a nephew; Major's girlfriend, Kimberly Oliverio; and employee Scott Eckel. None were wearing seatbelts.
After driving through the Highway 16 intersection at a recorded speed of 134 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 the children, both sons of Major's, died in the carnage.
'He was looking for a stop sign'
Major took to the witness box after an opening argument by one of his lawyers, Brian Pfefferle, that lasted less than one minute.
"When Robert Major was travelling out on Range Road 3083 to Highway 16 ... he was looking for a stop sign," Pfefferle said in front of the jury box.
"Had it been there, none of you folks would be sitting here. Had it been there, he would have stopped. His loved ones would still be alive. He wouldn't be on trial."
Major echoed that point during his testimony.
"I was going down and I was trying to look for the stop sign and it wasn't there," he said. "By the time I saw everything, it was too late... and I collided with the transport."
Major also testified that he deviated from his usual route to the highway that day. He was not on the phone during the drive, he added.
"When I woke up from the accident, I reached inside my pockets and I called my girlfriend because I was not sure if she was in my truck. And then I heard it ringing in the bottom of my truck.
"I put two and two together."
Nephew broke his 2 legs
Major's testimony about his phone was at odds with the account given only hours before by Major's nephew, who was seated in the back passenger seat, behind Major.
The nephew remembered looking out the window — and then noticing something.
"I kinda saw a bright light, so I looked. I saw him [Major] on his phone," the nephew testified.
"I felt we were going fast," he added.
The nephew broke both his legs in the crash, plus a collarbone, but can now play hockey and run, he said.
Under cross-examination by Pfefferle, the nephew conceded that he gave a prior statement saying Major was driving "a little fast."
No kid's seat in truck: ex-wife
Amanda Cardinal, Major's ex-wife, was the next person on the stand.
She said she was expecting Major to drop off the children that morning.
Major's truck did not have a three-point harness for Brendan, the youngest of Major's sons, who died in the crash.
Instead, Brendan sat on Oliverio's lap, according to the nephew.
Cst. Tyler Busch then testified that because all the children passengers were under 18 years old, it was Major's responsibility as an adult to ensure the children were buckled. None were.
RCMP officer smelled Major's breath
The last witness Monday morning was Cst. Aaron Rushton.
Rushton spoke to Major both on the afternoon of the crash and the next day, while Major was in the hospital.
According to Rushton, Major said he had smoked medical marijuana the night before the crash, at around 8 p.m.
Major said he had not been drinking on either the day of the crash or the day before, according to Rushton, and Rushton recounted sniffing Major's breath from about six inches away as Major lay in his hospital bed. Rushton detected no alcohol on Major's breath.
Conversation in the morgue
Rushton went to the hospital the next day to return Major's cell phone, which was recovered from the wreck.
Major was in the morgue, on a stretcher, his two dead sons lying next to him, Rushton said. Major told Rushton and another officer to come in, Rushton said.
"I was a little apprehensive about going in, considering the situation," said Rushton.
During the conversion, Major's brother pointed down at one of the dead children and asked what the officers were doing about the crash, Rushton said.
The brother asked about the stop sign that had been down on the ground, covered in snow, at the intersection the day of the crash, as well as the speed the semi-driver was driving at.
Rushton said one of the officers told Major and his brother that "it doesn't matter if the stop sign was down. You still have stop at an uncontrolled intersection."
Sign re-installed
The Department of Highways and Infrastructure re-installed the sign within a couple days of the crash, a previous witness said.
The semi-driver testified last week that he was driving at 90 kilometres an hour, on speed control. The semi-driver said he only saw Major coming from the corner of his eye.
Rushton was the officer who served Major with the summons outlining the dangerous driving and criminal negligence charges.
"He said, 'Okay... Wow,'" Rushton recalled of Major's reaction.
The trial continues Tuesday.
