Punjab-Origin Truck Driver Baljeet Singh Gets Six-Year Jail in Quebec for Fatal 2022 Crash

A Punjab-origin truck driver who killed a woman and her 11-year-old son on a Quebec highway while playing an online game on his phone has been sentenced to six years in a federal penitentiary. Baljeet Singh was sentenced on September 30 at the Longueuil courthouse, more than four years after the crash — one of the harshest penalties of its kind handed down in Canada. (This is a different case from the 2018 Humboldt Broncos tragedy involving driver Jaskirat Singh Sidhu.)

Six years, with a 10-year driving ban

The judge accepted a joint sentencing recommendation submitted by the Crown and the defence. After credit for time already spent in custody, Singh has four years and four months left to serve. He was also prohibited from driving for 10 years. The judge noted that for dangerous driving causing death and bodily harm, the sentence ranks among the more severe penalties generally imposed for this type of offence.

Distracted by a game in a construction zone

The tragedy occurred on July 19, 2022, on Highway 30 in Brossard, Quebec. As traffic slowed near a construction zone, the 53-foot tractor-trailer driven by Singh struck vehicles that were nearly stopped ahead of him, killing 42-year-old Nancy Lefrançois and her 11-year-old son, Loïc. Several other people were injured. Evidence presented in court showed Singh was using his cellphone and playing an online game at the time of the collision. Investigators found he had committed 43 violations of Quebec's Highway Safety Code that day and had exceeded the maximum driving hours permitted under hours-of-service regulations. At the time of the crash, Singh was driving for Harman Transport, an Ontario-based trucking company. In April, he pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Fled to India, caught in the United States

The case took a painful turn for the family less than 24 hours after the crash, when Singh left Canada for India before criminal charges had been laid. He remained outside the reach of Canadian authorities for more than three years. He was eventually located in the United States, where he was attempting to return to work as a truck driver, and was arrested by US authorities in August 2025 before being returned to Quebec.

The victims' family fights on

For the victims' family, the sentence remains difficult to accept — a frustration shared by many in Canada's trucking community, where concerns about inadequately qualified drivers have been raised for years. Mélanie Séguin, Nancy's stepmother, is now campaigning to reform Quebec's public automobile insurance system, arguing it is wrong that a driver criminally convicted over a fatal collision can remain eligible for certain injury benefits. She has also pressed Ottawa for a mechanism to temporarily retain the travel documents of drivers involved in fatal crashes while investigations are underway, so no family has to watch a driver leave the country before justice runs its course.