THUNDER BAY — A collision that killed a snowplow driver on Highway 102 in 2022 took place in an area where collisions have happened at least once a year since 2015, the court heard in Thunder Bay on Monday.
Pritam Singh was charged in February 2024 with dangerous driving causing death in relation to the collision involving three vehicles, including two tractor-trailers and a snowplow.
Kevin Barry Raftery, a professional engineer and proprietor of Raftery Engineering Investigations Ltd. was called by the defence to testify on Monday and said that the collision occurred west of the west end of a bridge that crosses the Kaministiqua River.
Raftery said that this bridge is the second of three bridges. The first bridge relevant to the scene of the collision crosses an active railway line, while the third bridge crosses an inactive railway line.
He said that the report created by OPP traffic reconstructionist Robert Morris indicates that these three bridges are all one bridge, and Raftery disagrees with that assessment based on his own studies of the area.
Raftery said he visited the site two-and-a-half years after the crash occurred to take his own measurements of the area.
He described the area, which is four kilometres east of Sistonens Corner, as one where drivers should exercise caution because you have less traction coming around the almost 90 degree curve and onto the bridge.
The time of year when the collision occurred, on Dec. 2 in 2022, when the temperature was at or just below 0 C meant that the bridge would have been frozen while the roadway on either side was not.
He said that all evidence points to the fact that the wheels of the trailer that Singh was driving seized, and the trailer swung out.
He said that when a trailer “swings out” is different from what Morris testified to — the Kenworth tractor-trailer driven by Singh jacknifed while on the bridge.
He said it was this swing out motion of the trailer that struck the snowplow.
Raftery testified that there is no way to know exactly where the collision occurred, but that the swing out likely started on the second bridge.
He said that in any collision the causation triangle takes into account three basic categories: the environment which includes factors like lighting, ice, or blinding sun in the eyes of the driver; the vehicle, which includes mechanical issues; and the driver, for factors like driving experience or sleepiness.
He said the report from Morris said that no mechanical examinations were completed. Raftery testified that an examination of this kind would have been helpful to have in the report.
He said he feels very strongly that the swing out of the trailer started on the first bridge, but he has no way of knowing whether there was a mechanical issue that may have contributed.
He said that the configuration of the roadway is a significant factor in this collision.
“It’s a curve, it’s steep and it’s not well-advertised to alert eastbound traffic,” he said.
The trial before Justice Fitzpatrick will continue on Tuesday.
None of the allegations against the accused have been proven in court.
