Saskatoon man on trial for 2017 highway crash that killed 2 near Langham

Sangin Niazi took the stand in a Saskatoon courtroom on Tuesday to relive the crash in 2017 that changed her world.

Niazi, 61, lost her husband Mohammad and daughter Zohalin the collision on Aug. 21, 2017, northwest of Saskatoon on Highway 16.

"I have no hope, I have no future,"Niazi testified.

"The house is cold and empty without them."

Braydon Wolfe is on trial by judge alone at Court of Queen's Bench charged with two counts of criminal negligence causing death, and another of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Mohammad, Sangin and Zohal Niazi were returning from visiting another daughter in Edmonton when the crash happened. Sangin Niazi testified that they were near Langham, her husband driving and daughter in the back seat "when I saw what was like a black container in front of us.

"Then I heard the sound of the crash."

She said that it happened so suddenly that she did not have a chance to scream. Her next memory is waking up and wondering why the floor mats were above her head.

The two-door Toyota was on its roof and Niazi was pinned in the floorwell underneath the glove box. She was able to reach out to her husband but could not find a pulse. She could not turn enough to locate her daughter.

"I knew it was a bad accident, I started screaming for help," she said.

The Niazi family moved to Saskatoon from Afghanistan in 2001. Sangin Niazi said her husband always told their children to begrateful for the chance to start a new life in a new country, and that they should work and give back to the community.

She said that living up to those words is what allows her to move forward.

Earlier on Tuesday, the first witnesses were people on scene of the crash and they testified they wereinitially notcertain a second vehiclehad been involved.

It was just after midnight on Aug. 21, 2017, when theycame across a white half-ton partially in the ditch near the town northwestof Saskatoon. The front end was crumpled and a man with a severely broken leg, wearing only his underwear, was lying face down on the pavement.

"It looked like he was ripped out of the vehicle, through the front window," said trucker Keane Livingston.

That man was later identified as30-year-old Braydon Wolfe.

Other witnesses described coming across a white Toyota car about 100 metres away, on its roof in the ditch.

Mohammad Niazi, 62, and Zohal Niazi, 25, died in the crash.

The initial witnesses at the trial testified that road and weather conditions were average that evening. Nithul Peter, another driver who came across the scene,said that prior to the crash, a truck had passed him heading westin the eastbound lane.

The trial is set to lastfour days.