KINGSTON – A Canadian semi-truck driver has been found guilty of charges in connection to a crash that killed three people on the State Thruway in Ulster County in 2020.
The Ulster County District Attorney’s Office announced on Tuesday that a jury found 67-year-old Luc Leblanc guilty of three counts of criminally negligent homicide.
Leblanc is expected to be sentenced on April 10. He faces a maximum sentence of 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison.
“I am grateful to the jury for their time and attention to the case and arriving at a verdict that reflects the evidence and the conscience of the community in such serious matter,” Ulster County District Attorney Emmanuel Nneji said. “This was a clearly preventable tragedy; it only required the driver, like anyone else driving any vehicle, to focus on the road and the safety of everyone. The loss of these three young lives, on the heels of an event affirming their family, is shattering.”
At trial, evidence showed that on August 2, 2020, Leblanc was driving a 44,000-pound tractor-trailer on I-87 in Ulster when he swerved repeatedly and failed to slow as traffic stopped, crashing into a Honda Accord and a Kia Sedona minivan. Dashcam footage captured the truck crossing lane lines, and Leblanc admitted he looked away from the road to adjust his radio.
Three members of a Guyanese family, 47-year-old Zulika Salim, 14-year-old Chelsea Gayapersad, and 10-year-old Justin Gayapersad, were killed. All three victims were backseat passengers in the Honda Accord; the driver of the Accord and the front seat passenger survived with non-life-threatening injuries. The victims and others in another vehicle directly ahead of them were on their way home to the Bronx from a family event which took place in Schenectady.
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