As a transport driver, Michael Hickey drove down Highway 69 South at least 11 times during his approximate one year employment with ProNorth Transportation in North Bay, the court heard during the third day of the man's trial.
Hickey is charged with three counts of criminal negligence causing death after his tractor-trailer flipped on Highway 69, near the Killarney turnoff, and caused the death of Kelly Ann Henderson and her twin 12-year-old sons Corbin and Jordin Sauve, on Aug. 7, 2002. His trial continued on Thursday, almost six years after the fatal crash.
William Ayers, a ProNorth employee in the safety and compliance department, testified that with the help of GPS records, he was able to determine the approximate number of times Hickey would have driven through the curve near the Killarney turnoff en route to his destinations.
OPP Const. Christopher Jones recalled the scene of the crash during his testimony. He was one of the first officers on scene.
As Jones walked toward the flipped tractor-trailer, he saw people inside the cab attempting to climb out.
Nearing the commercial vehicle, Jones noticed Henderson's car.
“There was a demolished vehicle near the bush line,” he said.
There were many people in the area by the time he left at around 9 p.m., he said.
“The scene was chaotic,” said Jones. “The magnitude of it was something that bothered me for quite a while after.
“It was a pretty horrific scene.”
The end of the court day brought the beginning of a testimony by Robert Urso, a vehicle inspection and enforcement officer with the Ministry of Transportation. Urso examined the tractor-trailer after the collision.
When Urso began to inspect the transport, he noticed that the fifth axle, or the second axle on the trailer of the commercial vehicle, was not aligned with the other two axles to either side.
This axle was approximately four inches out of place, he said. Also, parts of the fifth axle were different then the other two on the trailer, “which led me to believe that axle, at some point, had been replaced,” he said.
The job of the axles (a rod or spindle on which a wheel or group of wheels is fixed), said Urso, is to transmit weight evenly to the road. The misalignment of an axle would affect this weight transfer.
In addition, a space where the U-bolt (a u-shaped double ended bolt) met the axle caused the axle to move. A shiny spot on the right of the U-bolt indicates that the axle was moving back and forth. Since the shiny spot was not rusted over, the movement was recent.
According to Urso, if he saw these things on a vehicle, it would not be allowed on the road.
Urso's testimony will continue today.
