WINNIPEG — An inexperienced semi-truck driver from Ontario has been sentenced to pay a $3,000 fine for a collision that killed two people in eastern Manitoba.
Mark Lugli, who was 54, and his son 17-year-old Jacob Lugli, from Dryden, Ont., were on their way to a golf tournament when they died in a head-on crash on July 21, 2019, on the Trans-Canada Highway in Manitoba’s Whiteshell Provincial Park.
The truck driver, Abhinav Abhinav, who was 22 years old at the time, pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death and also faces a four-month driving ban.
Court heard that Abhinav, who had been on the job for only a few months, veered to avoid a rear-end collision with vehicles in front of him and crashed head-on with the vehicle the Luglis were in.
In imposing the sentence, Manitoba provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie acknowledged their family members may be unsatisfied.
The maximum penalties for the offence are $5,000, a five-year driving ban and a maximum of two years jail time, but the Crown did not seek a jail sentence.
Last month, the Manitoba government announced it would twin a 17-kilometre stretch of undivided highway in the area where the crash happened. (CTV Winnipeg)
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2022
