Laval Highway 440 deadly 2019 crash: Trucker sentenced to 10 years in prison
Posted May 15, 2025 1:57 pm.
The truck driver involved in the deadly Highway 440 crash in 2019 was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Judge Yanick Laramée announced his decision at the Laval courthouse on Thursday.
Jagmeet Grewal, 59, had been found guilty of criminal negligence causing death of four people in February 2024.
In 2019, Grewal was driving a 53-foot trailer, loaded with merchandise destined for the U.S. and failed to stop before rear-ending several cars at 100 km/h.
The collision, which caused a major fire, resulted in the deaths of Robert Tanguay-Plante, 26, Sylvain Pouliot, 55, Michèle Bernier, 48, and Gilles Marsolais, 54.
In total, 15 people were injured during the incident.
The Crown prosecution had demanded a 10-year prison sentence, arguing that Grewal should never have been driving a truck in the first place because his trucker permit had been revoked. The defence argued for a more lenient four to five years.
The 10-year sentence is harsher than the eight-year sentence imposed on the truck driver responsible for the Humboldt Broncos tragedy in 2018, where 16 people died, including 10 junior hockey players.
In his February verdict, Judge Laramée had said Grewal lied to get the job and put the safety of others at risk.
Grewal had lost his Class-1 licence in 2014 after he was involved in a major collision two years earlier, causing him to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
He had been declared unfit to drive, but he got his licence back due to an error by the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), Quebec’s automobile insurance board.
