‘You broke him’: Parents grieve at Broncos crash sentencing

A pair of socks now act as Chris Joseph’s security blanket.

He took the socks off his son Jaxon’s lifeless body after identifying the 20-year-old on April 7, 2018 – a day after the young hockey player was killed in the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy.

Joseph has kept the socks in his pocket ever since.

“When (Tricia) Wack came out of the funeral home ahead of us, she had a lock of Stephen (Wack’s) hair,” Chris Joseph said Tuesday.

“I made a decision I was going to take something of Jaxon’s I want to hold, so I took the socks off his feet.”

Joseph, a former NHL player, held his son’s socks up for all to see when he delivered his victim impact statement at day two of Jaskirat Singh Sidhu’s sentencing hearing in Melfort.

“I can’t even smell him anymore,” he told the makeshift courtroom which is stationed in a Melfort gym.

Sidhu was the semi driver who failed to heed an over-sized stop sign at the intersection of Highway 335 and 35 on April 6, 2018. He was travelling between 86 and 96 kilometres an hour when his truck ended up in the path of the Humboldt Broncos team bus, giving bus driver Glen Doerksen no time to respond.

The now 30-year-old Sidhu has pleaded guilty to 16 counts of dangerous driving causing death and 13 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

While some families have offered the semi driver forgiveness, drawing comparisons to their own loved ones who were lost in the crash, the Joseph family is not offering that absolution.

“You broke (Jaxon). For that, I will never forgive you,” Andrea Joseph, Jaxon’s mother, said.

“You don’t deserve my forgiveness.”

She’s calling for the court to go beyond the maximum possible sentence for Sidhu – 14 years consecutive for each of the 16 counts of dangerous driving causing death – and to set a new precedent instead.

“He shouldn’t be out,” she said.

Chris and Andrea Joseph spoke to media just now. Andrea says the crash broke her heart, while Chris says Jaxon's socks are like a security blanket for him now. #HumboldtBroncos pic.twitter.com/yen6Bbhs0G

— Chris Vandenbreekel (@Vandecision) January 29, 2019

The Josephs said their son had aspirations of continuing his hockey career in university, and of eventually coaching his own kids in hockey alongside his father.

But now that won’t happen, and the family made clear their devastation.

“Have you ever kissed a dead body before?” Andrea Joseph asked Sidhu.

“It’s so cold, but the skin feels delicate, and you just want to make everything better. But you can’t.”

The Josephs weren’t the only family to express palpable pain, as nearly 30 more victim impact statements were read into the court record on Tuesday.

Russ Herold, whose son Adam was the youngest on the Broncos bus at the age of 16, said his family name had been stamped out by the tragedy – and the lineage of the Herold farm with it.

“I lost a part of my soul,” Herold said.

“Do you know what it’s like to hold your six foot, two inch, 200 pound son in your lap like you did when he was a baby? Only now he’s in a can. It’s devastating.”

Calls for trucking industry changes

Among the sobs and cries of pain from the Broncos family, a cry for sweeping change also emerged Tuesday.

Several families said Sidhu shouldn’t have been on the road, or should have received more training.

“There’s a systemic problem, it’s not just him,” Joseph said.

“It needs to be fixed and I know that Transport Canada is trying to fix it, but there is a problem and it goes much deeper than the driver.”

Some also reacted to news that Sidhu was found to have 70 logging violations in the days leading up to the crash, leading an investigator to conclude the semi driver would have been suspended if he had been pulled over before the collision.

Scott Thomas said he wasn’t surprised by the information, and not all drivers can be caught.

“Clearly Mr. Sidhu was overwhelmed by the position he was put in by a much bigger, much sicker industry,” Thomas said.

He added that it was the symptom of a much bigger problem.

“Why are airlines regulated, why are trains regulated, and loaded missiles are driving down our highways with no regulation, wiping 16 people off the face of the earth in a second?”

Celeste Leray-Leicht, who lost her son Jacob in the crash, said she’s choosing to devote her efforts to advocating for change in the trucking industry.

“It is a mistake that the trucking industry isn’t held to a higher standard across the country,” she said, quoting a Facebook post she wrote the night Sidhu pleaded guilty.

“We must learn from our mistakes … I choose to fight for change.”

Faith and forgiveness

Leray-Leicht is also choosing to forgive.

“Mr. Sidhu, just as I keep all of these families in my prayers, so shall I keep you in mine,” she said in her victim impact statement Tuesday morning.

She noted she happened to be home on April 6 in Humboldt, giving her the opportunity to shine Jacob’s shoes ahead of the big game in Nipawin.

Jacob Leicht was also given a proper goodbye by his parents before he left to join the rest of his team on the bus that would never reach its destination.

She said she was grateful for the send off, and that she also chooses to believe Jacob’s life isn’t over.

“Just different.”

That sense of faith also carried through in other statements.

Christina Haugan, widow of head coach Darcy Haugan, said her husband was a God-loving man who saw the best in people, so she was forgiving Sidhu.

Paul Jefferson, who billeted Parker Tobin and survivor Tyler Smith, said there was no other choice but to forgive.

“As a person of faith, a Christian, I feel I’m commanded to forgive. Sometimes that’s harder to do than we would like,” he said.

“I know grief is a journey, and I need to forgive to move on in that journey, and so for my own good, and for my loved ones, I know that it’s important to forgive – whether I want to or not.”

Jefferson asked the judge to avoid a harsh sentence, because Sidhu pleaded guilty and accepted responsibility.

“I ask the court to not ruin his life as well,” he said.

“That would make 30 victims (from the crash).”

Paul Jefferson, who billeted Parker Tobin and Tyler Smith, says he forgives Jaskirat Singh Sidhu — even though it's a difficult task. #HumboldtBroncos pic.twitter.com/MQlw6M0NK5

— Chris Vandenbreekel (@Vandecision) January 29, 2019