A family member is speaking out over the sentence handed down to an Ontario trucker involved in the fatal crash that claimed the life of Mark and Jacob Lugli of Dryden.
Mark was driving his son Jacob to a golf tournament when they died in a 2019 heart wrenching crash involving a transport on the Trans-Canada Highway in Manitoba’s Whiteshell Provincial Park.
The transport driver, Abhinav Abhinava, who was 22 years old at the time with limited experience, has been ordered to pay $3,000 and also faces a four-month driving ban.
The maximum penalty for the offence is $5,000, a five-year driving ban and a maximum of two years jail time, but the Crown did not seek a jail sentence.
Peter Lugli, the brother of Mark and uncle of Jacob, says the family was prepared for an unhappy result.
“The nature of the charges themselves gave the court only so many options with respect to the sentence. We always knew it was going to be some combination of fine, fine and suspension. There certainly is a wide range of reaction to the outcome. The sentence was never going to match what the outcome was.”
Peter talks about the importance of this ruling.
“Getting past this phase and moving on. There’s no way that this is going to give anybody closure. People sometimes talk about that. You are not even going to get that. But for the family and in particular for Lynn and the kids and frankly also for the rest of the community, we needed to get past this point.”
Peter adds, “The big part of this was the heart-ripping stories that we heard. Not just from Lynn and the kids, which I frankly I’m so proud of all of them, I think Mark in particular would have been proud to hear those stories, but from others too.”
He says the goal now is keeping the Manitoba government accountable to a pledge to twin the 17-kilometre stretch of undivided highway in the area where the crash happened.
Peter informs CKDR News that the province has told him that specific details on the twinning will be released before the end of the year.
To hear the full emotional interview with Peter Lugli, visit the Audio link below:
