A truck driver has pled not guilty in a 2022 double fatal collision on Highway 401 in Lakeshore.
Warning: contains graphic content
Lovepreet Singh, 29, from the Greater Toronto Area is on trial for two counts of dangerous driving causing death.
Court learned on Sept. 23, 2022, Syeda Samina Sudhra Bokhari, 62, and her brother Syed Mehdi Bokhari, 55, were killed when their sedan was struck from behind by a transport truck.
Their vehicle also struck the SUV in front of them.
The passengers in that vehicle were carrying three other members of their family; they were driving together from Windsor to Toronto.
The collision occurred in the eastbound lanes of the 401 near the Belle River Road on ramp, where traffic was reducing from three lanes to one for construction.
Sedan catches fire
The three surviving family members provided the first pieces of evidence Monday.
“We were in the extreme right lane at the moment of the collision,” Bokhari’s husband – a passenger in the SUV - testified from Calgary.
“There was a big hit,” he said.
“If my husband didn’t speed up and move to the right, we would be dead,” Bokhari’s daughter – the other SUV passenger - told police that night.
“As soon as we merged, the truck came running from the back,” she told police. “They (transport) just didn’t stop.”
“The car was in flames and the fire was spreading quickly,” her father told the court.
“We were trying to break the windows and the doors to get them out,” the driver testified.
He recalls “somebody” brought a fire extinguisher, but the heat of the fire was too intense, and the family members were forced to step back and wait for first responders.
It was Essex-Windsor EMS paramedics who told them their family members had died.
All three described what sounds like a chaotic scene as they tried – in vain – to get their family members out of the burning vehicle, which was pinned under the transport. The truck was also on fire.
Autopsy results
An autopsy revealed Syeda Bokhari died of “active smoke inhalation” and serious injuries to her chest while her brother Syed suffered “blunt impact trauma”.
Dashcam footage of collision
Assistant Crown Attorney Brian Pillon presented dashcam footage of the moments before the collision.
It shows traffic in the distance slowing down, with a long line of traffic with brake lights on the right.
In the video, Singh’s transport can be seeing coming up over a hill and approach the traffic.
There are no brake lights until just moments before a flame is seen underneath the transport.
Out of respect to the victims in the case, CTV News has edited the video to end at the first sight of flames and not the full video as presented in court.
Four weeks have been set aside for the trial in Windsor’s Superior court.
