PICTOU: The 19-year-old driver facing multiple charges in relation to a fatal collision that claimed the lives of a mother and daughter from Antigonish is scheduled to return to court in March.
RCMP say a transport truck veered into oncoming traffic along Highway 104 in Barney’s River Station on October 12, 2019 and collided head-on with a Pontiac G6. Helen Sampson, 74, and Eva Sampson, 51, were pronounced dead at the scene.
Devon Michael Dewtie, of Trenton, faces two counts of criminal negligence causing death. He was expected for election and plea in Pictou Provincial Court last Monday, but instead, the hearing was adjourned until March 16.
Dewtie’s vehicle was not involved in the crash, but RCMP said he had been driving with a mattress on the roof that flew off, landed in the highway and caused the transport truck to lose control. He was arrested the following day without incident at a home 300-kilometres away, in Greenwood.
That section of highway is one of Nova Scotia’s deadliest stretches of highway. At least 18 people have been killed since 2007. The 38-kilometre stretch of Highway 104 between Antigonish and Sutherlands River, which is set to be twinned over the next five-years, has had more than 400 collisions over the past decade.
For more on this case, go to: https://prwpuploads.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/charges-laid-in-fatal-collision/.