Fatal crash on Manitoba highway results in five-year sentence for Shellbrook man

By Nigel Maxwell

A man who was behind the wheel of a semi that plowed into multiple vehicles on a Manitoba highway in July of 2020, causing two deaths and injuring more than a dozen other people, has received a five-year prison sentence.

James Randell, who was 56 at the time of the crash, was sentenced Friday at Court of King’s Bench in Portage la Prairie, Man.

He received five years on each of two counts of dangerous operation of a conveyance causing death, but those sentences will run concurrently. He also received 30 months for five counts of dangerous driving cause bodily harm, which will run concurrent to each other and to the other charge.

Following his release from custody, Randell will be prohibited from driving for a period of 10 years.

The crash happened near Fannystelle, a small community 50 kilometres west of Winnipeg. At the time, the RCMP said a semi truck failed to stop and drove into a lineup of stopped vehicles in a construction zone.

A seven-year-old girl and a 61-year-old man were killed. The girl was a passenger in one of the parked vehicles, and the man was driving a motorcycle.

Among those injured were a 22-year-old woman and 14-year-old girl, who suffered serious injuries.

The case had originally been scheduled for trial, but guilty pleas were entered in May and a pre-sentence report was ordered. Sentencing submissions concluded in October, with the decision reserved to Friday.