MONTREAL -- The man charged in a deadly collision on Highway 440 north of Montreal more than a year ago is now facing new charges.
Jagmeet Grewal appeared in a Laval court Thursday. The 54-year-old is now facing charges of criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm following a fiery crash in August 2019 that left four people dead and injured 15 more. Two of the dead were retired Montreal police officers.
It adds to the charges already laid of dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death and dangerous operation of a vehicle causing bodily harm.
Grewal’s lawyer Jean-Daniel Debkoski said a new Crown prosecutor is on the case and that could explain the new charges.
“I think it’s another type of studying by a new Crown prosecutor that is seeing this file in another way than the first one was seeing it,” he said.
Quebec has promised a major overhaul of the junction, used by hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day.
Debkoski said the case is weighing heavily on his client.
“As for us, it’s an accident that has big consequences for all those people and all those families. But we’ll try to manage to find a way to prove it was an accident and not a crime,” he said.
Grewal must respect several conditions including not operating a truck. His case returns to court on Feb. 9.
