Truck driver in fatal Canada hockey bus crash pleads guilty

The driver of a truck involved in a fatal crash with a bus carrying a Canadian junior hockey team on Tuesday pleaded guilty to 29 counts of dangerous driving causing death or bodily harm.

Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, 29, will be sentenced later this month after his brief plea hearing in a court in Melfort, Saskatchewan.

He faces up to 14 years in prison over the incident, which left 16 people dead, 10 of them players aged 16 to 21.

The other six people killed were coaches, journalists and the bus driver. Thirteen people were injured.

The devastating accident shocked Canada and the hockey world.

National Hockey League teams at home and in the United States helped raise money for the survivors and victims' relatives, and observed moments of silence before regular season games in tribute to those killed.

Outside the courthouse, Sidhu's lawyer Mark Brayford read a statement to reporters saying his client was devastated by the tragedy and did not wish to "make things any worse" by putting victims' families and the community through a trial.

"He's overwhelmed by the expressions of sympathy and kindness that some of the families and players have expressed to him, in spite of the fact that their grief is entirely his fault," Brayford said, cited by Canada's public broadcaster.

The Humboldt Broncos tour bus was travelling to a playoff game in a rural part of Saskatchewan province on April 6, 2018 when it collided with Sidhu's truck at a highway intersection.

Canadian police said the semi-trailer, loaded with heavy bundles of peat moss, was exceeding the speed limit and failed to stop at the intersection.

The force of the collision ripped open the bus.

Sidhu was the only person involved in the crash to escape injury or death.

The owner of the trucking company that hired him still faces eight charges for failing to comply with transport safety regulations.