Skyway bridge crash trial day 4

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The trial of the man accused of crashing his car into the Skyway bridge entered it’s second week.

On Monday, court heard testimony from the man who hired Sukhvinder Singh Rai who said that Rai was initially claiming that his truck had been hit on top of the bridge.

In the moments after crashing his truck atop the Skyway bridge, Sukhvinder Singh Rai called his boss and on Monday, that boss Tajinder Gill, owner of Peel Transport, testified that Rai told him,
“Somebody hit my truck”

Rai had been working for Peel Transport in Brampton for three months.

Phone records show that Rai called Gill 5 times in the immediate aftermath of the crash. Both Gill and Rai speak Punjabi and require interpreters in court.

Court heard that Rai has received between 1 and 2 weeks training before he was trusted on his own.

It was 3:35 pm on July 31st 2014 when the dump truck with it’s bin raised, crashed into the bridge .

Rai was supposed to travel between Brampton, Hamilton, and Kitchener as he hauled scrap metal between locations.

By the afternoon, Rai called gill from Hamilton and said that he would not make it to Kitchener in time.

Gill told Rai to come back to their Brampton location. minutes later the crash occurred.

The bridge closed for the August long weekend and it eventually cost 1.2 million dollars to repair.

Court also heard testimony about the process of raising the bin on the truck that Rai was driving.

Gill explained that raising the bin is a three step process, drivers must engage the clutch, put it in gear with the smaller black lever, then move the yellow lever into the “up” position.

Gill also said that a driver would have to lean over to their right, and take their eyes off the road in order to raise the bin.

Court has previously heard that the bin was in the down position just 2 kilometres from the crash site, and the OPP reconstruction report concluded that the bin was raised just as the truck started the incline along the bridge.

Sukhvinder Singh Rai is facing 4 charges related to the crash, including impaired driving.

Tajinder Gill also testified that he picked up Sukhvinder Singh Rai from the police station on the night of his arrest.

When Rai entered the car Gill said that he asked him “What he had done”, and he also asked if Rai “knew how many people’s income he had effected?”

Gill said that Rai sat there silently the entire time.

The trial continues, Tuesdsay.