Jaskirat Singh Sidhu has pleaded guilty to 16 charges of dangerous driving causing death and 13 counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm in a Saskatchewan courtroom.

“I plead guilty, your honour,” said Sidhu, who was wearing a black suit with white dress shirt and tie.

Sidhu was driving the truck that collided with the bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos hockey team on a Saskatchewan highway on April 6.

The crash killed 16 people and injured 13 others; five of the victims were from the Edmonton area.

Sidhu's lawyer, Mark Brayford, spoke outside the courthouse after the plea on behalf of his client. He says Sidhu wanted to plead guilty withough a plea bargain. He didn't want to make it any more difficult on the families.

“He wanted the families to know that he's devastated by the grief that he's caused them,” Brayford said. “And 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 their grief is entirely his fault.”

Scott Thomas, who lost his 18-year-old son Evan in the crash, was present in the courtroom for Sidhu’s plea.

“All I've ever told my kids is speaking about accountability and responsibility and to hear him use his own words to plead guilty, it's powerful," Thomas said, fighting his emotions outside court. "Now we can move forward with the next part of this.”

Sentencing is scheduled for January 28 in Melfort, Sask. The maximum penalty for dangerous driving causing death is 14 years. Its 10 years for dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Thomas says the sentence doesn’t matter as much as the guilty plea.

“When he said, 'Guilty,' to me, I have my closure,” he said. “If he spends a day, if he spends 10 years, time is irrelevant. He was guilty. He acknowledged that. That's all I needed to hear.”

“The rest of the sentence doesn't matter to me. It really doesn't. It is not going to bring Evan back. I've got to spend the rest of my life with it. He's got to spend the rest of his life with it.”

The owner of the Calgary-based trucking company is also facing a number of charges in the case, including two counts of failing to maintain logs for drivers hours of service, three counts of failing to monitor the compliance of a driver under safety regulations, and two counts of having more than one daily log for any day.

With files from CTV Saskatoon's Ashley Field and the Canadian Press