Saskatchewan premier reflects on own crash ahead of Humboldt anniversary

Moe was driving on a gravel road to his family’s farm near Shellbrook, Sask., in 1997, when he failed to come to a complete stop as he approached a highway. The sun was on the horizon. (File Photo: Scott Moe/Twitter)

REGINA – Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says he feels for everyone involved in the Humboldt Broncos crash and thinks daily about the deadly collision he was involved in years ago.

“It’s one that weighs on me heavily every day of my life, he told The Canadian Press in an interview Friday.

“It’s part of me.”

Moe was driving on a gravel road to his family’s farm near Shellbrook, Sask., in 1997, when he failed to come to a complete stop as he approached a highway. The sun was on the horizon.

A woman in the vehicle he collided with died.

“You dig deep as to why and you also dig deep as to how can I use this, in my case, a personal tragedy, to make a difference as you move forward,” he said.

Moe received a ticket for driving without due care and attention and for failing to come to a complete stop.

In the Broncos crash last April, it was an inexperienced truck driver who blew through a stop sign and into the path of the junior hockey team’s bus at a rural intersection near Tisdale, Sask.

Sixteen people died and 13 were injured.

The trucker, Jaskirat Singh Sidhu of Calgary, was sentenced last month to eight years for dangerous driving.

A memorial is being held in Humboldt, Sask., on Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of the tragedy. Moe is attending the service with his wife.

He said he doesn’t compare the collision he was involved in with the Broncos crash or any other experience.

He has publicly talked about the 1997 crash before. In the leadup to the 2018 Saskatchewan Party leadership race, he said he had been open with his constituents in Rosthern-Shellbrook and gave details to the media.

He doesn’t have any contact with the family of the woman who died, he said.

As a father of two, Moe said, he can’t imagine what the families of the Broncos victims have gone through. And he believes the truck driver will feel the impact of his actions beyond any punishment handed to him by the courts.

“Nobody sets out one morning with any intent of being in a car accident of any type,” Moe said.

“To some degree I feel for Mr. Sidhu and his family.”