It’s been four years since they lost their son in a crash near Crescent Spur
Bob Mackin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | Jan 1, 2026 10:39 AM
A transport truck jackknifed on the highway near Crescent Spur at around 2 p.m. on Dec. 21, 2021. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Nate Peebles died in a collision after a transport truck jackknifed on the highway near Crescent Spur at around 2 p.m. on Dec. 21, 2021. PEEBLES FAMILY PHOTO
Peter Peebles vows never to drive in British Columbia again.
“It’s too dangerous,” Peebles said in an interview with The Citizen.
The Sherwood Park, Alta., power engineer was raised in Prince George, studied at BCIT in Burnaby and worked in Kamloops. He settled near Edmonton in 2009 and met his wife, Erika, a human resources manager, in 2011.
“I grew up driving those mountains,” he said. “I played minor hockey my whole life in Prince George, I grew up driving down those highways for hockey games, right between Fort St. John to Kamloops. My father worked for the department of highways his whole career. Driving those highways was a part of our lives.”
Four years ago, Peter, 50, and Erika, 44, learned the hard way that they could no longer rely on BC roads to be safe or insurance to support them in a time of need.
At Christmastime 2021, Peter installed a set of new winter tires on his four-door 2015 Dodge Ram pickup truck just in time to take Erika and their children on a road trip to spend the holiday with extended family in Prince George.
He said he was not in a hurry and continues to regret not stopping for a midday meal in McBride — all because of what happened on the snowy Highway 16 near Crescent Spur, 45 kilometres west of McBride.
Around 2 p.m. on Dec. 21, 2021, according to a witness, an eastbound Dart Transport Volvo semi-truck, driven by Manpreet Dhaliwal, passed another eastbound vehicle over a double solid yellow line on the two-lane highway. The truck accelerated in the westbound lane; Dhaliwal lost control. The truck and its empty trailer jackknifed across the highway.
Peter said he was driving westbound to the summit of a hill and suddenly discovered the truck and trailer barrelling toward his Dodge Ram, across the entire highway. He remembers Erika yelling for him to “hit the ditch” before the head-on collision.
Nate, who was looking forward to Christmas in a few days and his fifth birthday the next month, was in the back seat behind the driver’s seat.
He suffered a serious head injury and was airlifted to Edmonton but succumbed the next day.
Peter was hospitalized for six weeks with leg fractures, a crushed foot and facial injuries and required three surgeries.
Since then, the family has struggled.
Peter and Erika say the system failed their family and they want change for the sake of other families.
Change needed
As they recovered, the Peebles reached out to politicians and bureaucrats on both sides of the border to urge stronger licensing of truck drivers and companies, better law enforcement and highway maintenance.
The most that BC has done since then, Peter said, is crack down on commercial truck drivers who collide with overpasses.
“It’s so far out of whack in British Columbia,” he said.
“So, damaging infrastructure, compared to citizens,” Erika said.
BC’s Ministry of Transportation and Transit told the Citizen it regularly monitors and assesses highways for improvements and routinely reviews highways after fatal or serious incidents to ensure they meet safety and functionality standards.
“The review conducted following this incident did not identify any changes required as a result of this incident,” said a statement provided to the Citizen.
Peter found out, through the Alberta Public Carrier Profile, that Dart Transport vehicles had been involved in three other injury-causing crashes earlier in 2021. He wonders why authorities don’t have zero tolerance, almost eight years since 16 people died when another Alberta company’s truck was driven through a stop sign in Saskatchewan and plowed into the Humboldt Broncos’ hockey team bus.
The BC ministry said it has been improving compliance and enforcement since October 2021, when Mandatory Entry Level Training became a prerequisite for a Class 1 driver’s licence. Other mandatory measures include electronic logging devices in commercial vehicles (since August 2023), speed limiters (April 2024) and in-cab devices to warn if a dump box is raised (June 2024).
Peebles said it took almost a year-and-a-half for Alberta’s minister of transportation to respond.
In September, Devin Dreeshen said in an email that Alberta has “strengthened its commercial driver training system to improve competency and oversight.”
Dreeshen emphasized the April replacement of Alberta’s Mandatory Entry Level Training curriculum with the new, four-tier Class 1 Learning Pathway.
Dreeshen’s letter also said Alberta pulled eight commercial carriers from continued operations in 2024 and issued 184 penalties after 470 audits and 149 investigations.
No accountability
Peter Peebles said he is most shocked by the lack of accountability through BC’s auto insurance and justice systems.
In May 2021, the NDP government switched to no-fault insurance, a system that ICBC branded “Enhanced Care.”
Premier David Eby was the attorney general who wanted to make insurance more affordable, ease the burden on courts and improve ICBC’s bottom line. He famously called the Crown monopoly on basic auto insurance a “dumpster fire.”
But under the new system, unless the driver who is liable for causing an injury or fatality on BC roads is convicted of a criminal violation, victims cannot sue for compensation.
Peebles said the RCMP did not conduct a forensic investigation, so Crown prosecutors opted to charge Manpreet Dhaliwal under the Motor Vehicle Act for driving without due care and attention, rather than the Criminal Code charge of dangerous driving causing death — which carries a maximum life sentence.
Dhaliwal was found guilty. Last July, Provincial Court Judge Michael Brecknell sentenced him to 60 days in jail, a $1,480 fine and $30,000 in restitution.
“Nothing in this decision will return a young child to his family,” Brecknell said in his sentencing reasons. “Nothing in this decision will properly address the enduring grief the family has and will continue to experience. Nothing in this decision will alleviate the guilt felt by the person whose actions bring him before the court for sentencing. The purpose of this decision is to impose a just and appropriate sentence.”
Brecknell left it to the superintendent of motor vehicles to decide the fate of Dhaliwal’s licence.
The restitution order is a fraction of the $218,551.44 the Peebles asked the court for replacement of the pickup truck, compensation for medical costs, loss of work and opportunity, and costs of Nate’s funeral.
Dhaliwal appeared for his sentencing hearing by web conference from India. The court was told he was there to care for his mother, ill with sepsis.
The Prince George court registry says Dhaliwal’s arrest warrant remains outstanding and no fine has been paid. Peter and Erika have not seen a penny yet in restitution and they wonder if they ever will.
Dhaliwal’s lawyer is Brij Mohan in Edmonton. Sukh Kalkat, the lawyer who represented Dhaliwal at the July 14 sentencing, told Brecknell that his client had been “psychologically destroyed.”
Asked by the Citizen about Dhaliwal’s status, Kalkat said by email that “we can provide no updates about this case or any other comments.”
Peebles said he was surprised the judge ordered both jail time and restitution, but as long as Dhaliwal does not spend time in jail or make the ordered payments, there will be no accountability.
“I had no idea how accommodating we were to accused individuals,” Peter said. “That’s very upsetting.”
Peter is also alarmed that the Alberta government is poised to follow BC’s lead and adopt no-fault insurance by 2027.
In a statement to the Citizen, BC’s Ministry of Attorney General said the “Enhanced Care model is designed to provide people with benefits to support their recovery after a crash, ensuring help reaches them faster rather than getting caught up in lengthy legal processes.”
That includes medical rehabilitation, income replacement and, in the event of a fatality, grief counselling, funeral expenses and death benefits.
There is a glimmer of hope for reform for people like the Peebles. The NDP amendments to the Insurance (Vehicle) Act that enabled no-fault insurance require a special, all-party committee of MLAs to be struck by May 1, 2026, in order to conduct a comprehensive and independent review. The special committee will have a year to hear witnesses and report back to the legislature with recommendations.
“This process ensures ongoing assessment of compensation, long-term care, and supports for people injured in crashes, including survivors,” the ministry said.
For the time being, Peter and Erika Peebles say they will do their best to make it a happy Christmas.
“Christmas will never be the same for anyone. Christmas isn’t Christmas. Christmas is the anniversary of losing our son,” Peter said.
Added Erika: “The only thing that’s kind of carrying us through is just trying to find that purpose and do something that it does honour our son and try and make it better for our children and for other children.”
Article Originally Written by Bob Mackin for the Prince George Citizen
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