Moving van driver Christopher Boucha was asleep at the wheel when he lost control of his five-tonne truck and crashed head on with an oncoming vehicle, killing an elderly couple, a Calgary judge ruled Wednesday.
And Justice Craig Jones said Boucha’s conduct in the deadly collision on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Calgary was a marked departure of a reasonable driver and constituted criminal conduct.
Jones convicted Boucha of four charges, including two of dangerous driving causing death, in the Aug. 11, 2021, collision which killed Invermere couple John Fox, 78, and Glenys Fox, 75.
The couple were killed in the collision near Morley when Boucha, who had been awake for most of the previous 27 hours, fell asleep at the wheel, crossed the median and collided with their Toyota car head on, Jones found.
But the Calgary Court of King’s Bench judge said even if Boucha had been awake, the fact he was so fatigued from being up for more than a full day, save for a brief 15-minute nap, his conduct would still have constituted dangerous driving.
Boucha admitted he was tired at the time of the crash, but denied falling asleep before losing control of his moving van testifying he was attempting to move to the left passing lane when he lost control of the steering which pulled him across the highway.
But Jones disbelieved his evidence, finding the gradual veer across the median witnessed by a driver behind Boucha, coupled with the fact he didn’t brake, or signal, was consistent with him falling asleep.
“I disbelieve Mr. Boucha’s evidence,” Jones said.
“I have no reasonable doubt that he fell asleep. He did fall asleep.”
Defence lawyer Chad Haggerty had sought an acquittal for his client, arguing his client’s claim of a mechanical failure on the vehicle was plausible.
He said despite his client’s admission he was driving for much longer than federal legislation allows before truckers must take an eight-hour break, that alone didn’t constitute a marked departure from a prudent driver.
“If the court accepts that there was a mechanical defect, nothing that Mr. Boucha did prior to that point and nothing Mr. Boucha did after that point would have prevented this horrific accident,” Haggerty said.
Breaching the federal act “does not, in and of itself, mean that his driving was a marked departure from the actions of a prudent individual.”
But Jones found they were and Boucha’s actions alone were the sole cause of the deadly collision, which also injured his passenger and co-worker as well as the driver of a truck which collided with the Fox vehicle after the initial impact.
He agreed with Crown prosecutor Vince Pingitore that Boucha’s conduct was criminal.
He will remain at liberty while a presentence report is prepared. A sentencing date will be set on Aug. 16.
X: @KMartinCourts