A survivor of a deadly crash says he’s disappointed no inquest will be held into the collision.
Juan Ariza is one of three survivors of the crash that killed 10 migrant workers and a truck driver in Hampstead last year.
On Tuesday, Ontario interim chief coroner Dan Cass announced that there would be no inquest into the crash, one of the deadliest in Ontario history.
A joint investigation by OPP and the Ministry of Labour concluded that the crash was caused by driver error when a van carrying the workers home for the night drove through a stop sign and into the path of an oncoming truck.
The investigation found that weather, road conditions, road design and driver fatigue did not contribute to the crash.
The Agriculture Workers Alliance, an advocacy group for farm workers, argues there should be an inquest. They and other migrant worker groups say workers are in jeopardy every day.
Cass agrees, but says an inquest into the crash would be unlikely to generate recommendations that would prevent similar crashes in the future.
“As terrible as this crash was, this is just not the right case to illustrate the issues related to migrant workers, because none of those factors were related causily to the crash,” he tells CTV.
Cass says factors that were considered and discarded include fatigue, weather, road conditions and road design.
“Those guys were working really, really hard and I can’t see how they ruled out fatigue as not being a contributing factor,” says Stan Raper of the Agriculture Workers Alliance.
Ariza, who is still recovering at a London nursing home, says the night of the crash is still fresh in his mind.
“Every day, every single moment, I see a truck that is coming,” he says through a translator.
He’ll be undergoing Workplace Safety and Insurance Board tests Thursday to determine if he is fit to return to work.
Wayne Hanley, the national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, said the Hampstead crash was a tragedy that could easily happen again.
With files from The Canadian Press
