THE law firm representing trucker Harjit Singh Lotay on Thursday informed the media, including The VOICE, that all charges that he was facing in the November 13, 2012 collision between his 2006 freightliner tractor and RCMP Constable Adrian Johann Oliver’s 2010 Crown Victoria Interceptor have been stayed by Crown.
Oliver died in the crash, while Lotay was injured.
Brij Mohan & Associates noted: “Like Cst. Oliver, Mr. Lotay had also just completed a 12 hour shift and Mr. Lotay has not been able to work since that fateful day of the collision between Mr. Lotay’s truck and a speeding police car.”
The firm added: “To further compound Mr. Lotay’s difficulties he is being currently sued by Canada for the loss of Cst. Oliver’s police car, and for the cost of equipping a new police vehicle.”
Lotay and his lawyer Brij Mohan will be holding a press conference on Tuesday “to speak of this development.”
LAST November, The VOICE reported: “Transport truck driver Harjit Lotay, who was in a November 2012 crash that killed Surrey RCMP Constable Adrian Oliver who was driving an unmarked police cruiser that slammed into Lotay’s semi-tractor at the 148th Street and 64th Avenue crossing in Surrey, is being sued by Canada’s attorney general. A civil suit filed in B.C. Supreme Court claims that Lotay made a negligent driving manoeuvre that resulted in his vehicle crossing into the path of the RCMP vehicle. There are also other allegations. The suit seeks special damages from Lotay and his employer Heaven Transport for the police cruiser and expenses for fitting up a replacement vehicle. But no claims have been proven in court.”
Back in December 2012, Chief Superintendent Bill Fordy, Officer in Charge, Surrey RCMP, had announced that “the preliminary investigation indicates, by way of GPS and video evidence, that Constable [Adrian] Oliver was attempting to locate a recently stolen pick-up truck” and that “during the course of those efforts, in the moments prior to the collision, he was operating his police vehicle in excess of the posted speed limit, without his emergency equipment activated.”
In November 2012, Lotay told the Vancouver Sun newspaper that he was getting ready to make a left-hand turn onto 148th Street from 64th Avenue in Surrey around 5 a.m. on November 13 when an oncoming vehicle drove straight on while signalling a right-hand turn at the green light.
He said he attempted to get Oliver out of the cruiser and waited for the ambulance and police to arrive.
Strangely, though Fordy claimed at a press conference that day that the truck driver was “not injured,” Lotay suffered bruises on his chest and got eight stitches in his arm. He was treated and released from hospital that night.
