‘It sends a strange message’: Father of two killed by trucker regrets five-year prison sentence for sucking on his cellphone

Father of the murdered children A A trucker with his eyes glued to his cell phone A five-year sentence in Ontario last year was not enough.

“Years in detention do not change the outcome of the tragedy, but it does send a strange message. For me, it’s more than indifference, when you drive a truck, you only have one job and that’s to look at the road,” said Jean-Philippe Giroux, father of Emerick and Mellie.

The children, ages 7 and 3, died on April 18, 2022, on Highway 401 near Belleville, Ontario. They were driving with their mother, grandmother and uncle when they were hit head-on by a tractor-trailer.

Mehkdeep Singh, the driver, didn’t even notice the line of vehicles in front of him slowing down, absorbed in the screen of a cell phone he held in one hand.

He hit a vehicle in which Mr Giroux’s children were traveling at full speed. Sitting in the back of the car, they had no chance. Their grandmother Chantal Tendouin-Legald, 68, died. The children’s mother, Anique Legault, and their uncle, Eric, who was sitting in the front seat, were injured.

Anik Legault (with headscarf), along with his twin brother Eric, at a restaurant in Toronto, Ontario in April 2022, shortly before his mother Chantal Tendouin-Legalult and her children Mellie, 3, and Emerick, 7, were killed in a violent confrontation.

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Courtesy photo

The delinquent trucker betrayed his truck’s cabin and the road ahead with surveillance cameras.

The mortal conflict is thus fully captured. In the video, he stared at his phone for a second before the impact.

He was also disoriented for several minutes before the collision. At the same time we watch the road mechanically and semi-automatically while observing the cell phone.

He ignored the sign on the side of the highway. In images from a camera capturing the road in front of his truck, the taillights of cars braking ahead are visible even in the distance.

Mehkadeep Singh’s eyes were glued to his cell phone seconds before the collision. Court of Honor of Ontario

Court of Honor of Ontario

“To me, driving with a cell phone in your hand is like driving drunk,” Mr. Giroux commented.

Worse still, Mehkdeep Singh should never have been on the road that day. The then 26-year-old was no longer allowed to drive after spending too many hours behind the wheel.

Investigation revealed that he had actually falsified his logbook. He should have been taken off the road for 72 hours for his false entries on the computer.

He was recently convicted of dangerous driving causing death and harm. He was jailed for five years, which takes into account his sincere remorse and his clean criminal record.

Courtesy of Ontario Court

“We suspect he won’t be in prison for five years. My sentence is for life,” lamented Mr. Giroux. [Après le drame a] A separation follows. So one day I had a happy family and the next day nothing.