uck driver iconvicted in iHorseshoe Bay death crash Suprerne Court jury finds driver guilty on seven criminal charges THE DRIVER of a runaway dump truck loaded with hot f asphalt that crashed into a van full of holiday travellers at ; the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal last summer, killing two 4 people, was convicted Thursday by a B.C. Supreme Court jury on seven criminal charges. The jury deliberated for five hours before finding Jatinderpal g@ Singh Ubhi, 25, suilty on two counts of criminal negligence causing death and five counts of criminal negligence causing bodily arm. Ubdhi will be sentenced on Jan. 21. The maximum sentence for criminal negligence causing death is life in prison; the maximum sentence for criminal negligence causing bodily harm is 10 years in prison. 44 (Drivers) are expected to Physically inspect their air brakes prior to driving their vehicle on any given day. 99 . - Crown Prosecutor Joe Bellows Ubhi, along with partner Kuldiv Dail, 37, was driving an A-! Pav- ing Ltd. truck filled with hot asphalt at about 7:30 a.m. on July 9, 1996 when the truck lost its brakes after leaving a mandatory brake-check station atop a hill near the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. The hill has a 12% grade. The truck sped past ferry ticket bootiis and turned iato lane four at the ferry terminal’s under- ground parking lot before crashing into a Ford passenger van. The van, which was the only vehicle in the lane at the time, was partially covered with the truck’s load of hot asphalt. The crash claimed the lives of Reta Pestell, 41, of Etobicoke, Ont., and her nine-year-old daughter Shawna Marie. Injured in the accident were the woman's husband Derek Pestell, 56, his daughter Danielle, seven, By Surj Rattan News Reporter and Kelowna residents Douglas McCourt, 66, Beverly McCourt, 47, and Magan McCourt, 10. The jury did not believe Ubhi’s testimony that he had checked his brakes at the brake-check station before proceeding to the ferry terminal. Crown prosecutor Joc Bellows told the News that there are strict training guidelines for the opera- tors of commercial vehicles; Ubhi's conviction, he said, should send a message to industry drivers that those guidelines must be adhered tc. ‘Anyone involved in the vusiness of driving commercial vehicles should be reminded by this decision what their training should be. They are expected to physically inspect their air brakes prior to driving their vehicle on any given day,’’ said Bellows. “Their training is very specific. {n one sense it (training require- ments) is nothing new, but if one should need a reminder of what their training should be then [ think this case wouid be an ex- cellent reminder.” In June, a B.C. Ccroner's in- quest found no evidence that Ubhi actuaily checked his brakes when he stopped at the mandatory brake-check station. Wrote coroner Kenneth Pitt: “A detailed examination of the dump truck revealed that it was in fairly good mechanical condition prior to the accident and the only serious mechanical defect that could be found was the lack of regular adjustment and maintenance of the rear-wheel brake-siack adjusters.’’ He added that the brake-slack adjusters on all four rear brakes “had obviously not been adjusted in some time.” . Pitt stated that all four adjust- ment nuts ‘‘were encased in a dist and grease mixture and were so far out of adjustment that with the heating and expansion of the drums under a heavy load on a downgrade, the brakes would become totally ineffective.’’ In addition, Pitt said the truck, loaded with 16.47 tons of hot asphalt, was overweight and that Ubhi had been told his truck was overweight before he left a North Vancouver plant. EP a a a a Ta Index @ High Profiles & Cocktails & Caviar S8 Fashion @ High Tech B® Horoscopes @ Lifestyles @ Spiritually Speaking @ Vintage Years @ Whar’s Going On Weather Monday, Tuesday. rain. Highs 10°C, lows S°C. Second Class Registration Number 3885 NEWS photo Mike Wakef! NORTH VANCOUVER City Ald. Bill Beli wants the owners of the vacant Sergio’s Oyster Bar res- taurant to clean up the site, which Beil says hss become an eyesore. But the owners of the ! building say the problem lies with vandalism, something they say they can do nothing about. ‘Eyesore’ offends alderman NVC’s Bell blasts landowner of vacant site A NORTH Vancouver City alderman has taken aim at the owners of a vacant Lower Lonsdale building he considers to be an ‘‘eyesore’’ and has said the owners should clean up the site. But Scott Cressey, vice- president of Cressey Develop- ment Corp., the owners of the oid Sergio’s Oyster Bar Res- taurant site at the northeast corner of Lonsdale Avenue and Third Street, said he doesn’t know what the city expects him to do with the site. The building, which housed two nightclubs before it became Sergio’s Oyster Bar, has been at the corner of Lonsdale and Third Stréet since 1972 and has sat vacant since March 7, 1988. Its windows have been boarded up; graffiti has been spray painted on the sides of the building. Ald. Bill Bell said Cressey should improve the condition of the building. “That place is falling apart. It’s horrible. He (Cressey) has done nothing with that site,” said Bell. ‘‘it’s an eyesore; it has become a real concern.”’ Bell said he has talked to city staff about the site; staff, in By Surj Rattan News Reporter turn, have tried to communi- cate with the owners, he said, but they “tare not getting any cooperation from Cressey.’ Bell also said that it is in Cressey’s best interests to clean up the site because Cressey owns a large residential tower less than one block away fram the Sergio’s site in the 100- block of west Second Street. “He has this huge tower (The Observatory) that he is making all kinds of money from, but he should show more respect for the community with his other site,’? said Bell. ‘I think Cressey should smarten up. He has a stake in the area because of the people who live in his building. We don’t like to use iron fists in forcing someone to .ciean up their act and I would hope Cressey would do something.’’ But Cressey asked what Bell and the city want from him. The obuilding’s dilapidated condition, he said, should not be dlamed on him. ° Cressey said he bought the building when it was vacant and added that the city would not let a nightclub operate in the area. ‘We boarded it up for secu- rity reasons, but vandals have come around and sprayed graf- fiti on it. It’s surhing that we’ve done,’’ said Cressey. “Pm a little lost as to what rhe city wants me to do with it. I don’t know how to stop van- dals,’’ He also denied Bell's charge that he has not bren com- municating with city staff. “I’ve made several calls to the city in response to a letter they have sent me and I have left messages for them, but no one has returned my cails,’’ Cressey said. ‘‘We would tike to redevelop the site, but we have to wait for better eco- nomic times before we do. The city has some pretty firm guidelines in terms of what kind of development can go in there.”*