Thursday’s announcement that Barrie police had charged a private construction company with six counts of criminal negligence causing death in last summer’s devastating crash on McKay Road could serve as a legal precedent in the country, according to one lawyer.

Condrain Company (1983) Ltd. is the company doing construction along that stretch of road, between County Road 27 and Veterans Drive, as part of large-scale residential development in the city’s south end. The criminal charges fall under Section 220(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada.

The August 2022 crash claimed the lives of Haley Marin, Curtis King, Luke West, Jersey Mitchell, River Wells and Jason Ono-O’Connor, all of whom were in their early 20s. Their deaths reverberated throughout the community, as many people had known several of the young adults from growing up in Barrie.

According to a family member of one of the victims, the car they were in plummeted into a deep, concrete hole — referred to by the city as a “tunnel access shaft” — and then caught fire.

On Sunday, Aug. 28, at approximately 2 a.m., while conducting a missing persons investigation, police officers checked the construction zone and located a vehicle in a large hole in the middle of McKay Road.

Investigators soon determined the deadly wreck happened sometime shortly after 6 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022. Police have said they believe the group was travelling to the nearby Gateway Casinos Innisfil (Georgian Downs), not far from the crash site and just outside the city limits.

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