BRAMPTON, Ont. — The gravel truck driver charged with two counts of criminal negligence causing death after a 2007 collision that resulted in the death of two sisters was found not guilty Monday morning.

The decision followed a  judge-only trial in Superior Court in Brampton. Justice Kenneth Langdon presided.

Even though the driver, Gurjant Sidhu, might have been driving about nine kilometers per hour over the posted speed limit of 60, Justice Langdon told the Court that in the context of the other circumstances at the time, the speed of the truck "doesn’t’ amount to dangerous driving and doesn’t amount to criminal negligence."

Sidhu was driving a 1996 Western Star and pulling a quad-axle dump trailer south on Airport Road when he collided with a 1992 Honda driven by Vanessa DiCeglie, 19.

Sidhu was going through the intersection and DiCeglie, who had been northbound on Airport, was making a left on to Mayfield.

There is no evidence that either driver disobeyed traffic signals.

DiCeglie held her G2 licence and was en route to a licence exam, where she would be attempting to earn her G permit.

She was accompanied by her sister, Isabel. Both women were killed instantly.

The accident occurred on Isabel’s 23rd birthday.

During the first days of the trial, an inspector with the Ministry of Transportation testified that he inspected the truck shortly after the accident and found a number of faults on the tractor, ranging from a cracked brake drum to worn bushings.

None of the faults individually would be enough to order the truck out-of-service, but the inspectors told Court that if he had inspected the truck before the accident, he probably would have put it out of service.

A year ago, Lavinder Aulakh, the president of the numbered company that owns Sidhu’s truck was fined $11,000 for failing to maintain proper records and not keeping the truck up to standards. Aulakh, whose company has been hauling gravel for about 13 years, pleaded guilty at the time.

However, as Justice Langdon told the Court in Brampton this week, none of the faults were problems that driver Sidhu would have found during his daily pre-trip, and none contributed to the tragedy that ensued.

Relying largely on the testimony of accident reconstruction expert Sam Kodsi of Kodsi Engineering, who testified in Sidhu’s defence, Justice Langdon said that Sidhu’s driving decisions at the time of the accident were all "defensible under the circumstances."

In his summation to the Court, Justice Langdon says he believes that DiCeglie was an inexperienced driver who "ought not to have turned" when she did.