Accident in Lac-au-Saumon: the deceased child was probably not attached

The report also highlights the fact that there were only three seat belts for the four children in the vehicle.

Coroner Jean-Pierre Chamberland recalls that on August 5, 2021, Pierre-Paul Turcotte, 84, was driving his GMC Sierra pickup truck alongside his 37-year-old nephew, Kaven Turcotte. In the back seat are Kaven Turcotte’s 5-year-old son, Nathan Ouellet, and three other children.

Pierre-Paul Turcotte is driving on the Lac à Pitre road. Arrived at the intersection of Route 132, he undertakes to cross it and continue his way on the Lac à Pitre road.

However, a heavy truck was driving west on Route 132 at the time. The driver suddenly sees the GMC pickup truck appear in front of him on his left in his lane and can’t avoid itcan we read in the coroner’s report.

The truck crashed head-on into the right side of the van, which was thrown over a distance of 41 metres. The driver of the heavy truck calls the emergency services and tries to rescue the passengers of the van, but they are trapped insidewe also read in the report.

When they arrived, the paramedics used the jaws of life and noted the death of Pierre-Paul Turcotte and Kaven Turcotte. The death of young Nathan Ouellet is recorded at the Amqui hospital.

The other three children are transported to hospitals in Quebec and Montreal for serious injuries that raise fears for their lives. Fortunately, all three make it out alive.

Three seat belts for four children

The coroner mentions that the two men and two of the children were wearing their seat belts.

However, the other two children, including Nathan Ouellet, were seated in the middle of the back seat.

There was therefore only one safety belt for the two children, but since this one did not have to be cut by the first responders, unlike the other belts, and it bore no burn marks or friction, this suggests that these two children were not attached at all.

They were also not seated in a child seat, despite being 4 and 5 years old, the coroner added.

Moreover, the analysis of the scene and the testimonies collected do not make it possible to determine whether Mr. Turcotte made his stop-stop before entering the intersection. However, the coroner considers that it is unlikely that Mr. Turcotte did not stop or slow down at the intersection, since his speed at the time of impact was only 30 km/h.

The report also states that the visibility was good that day, that the asphalt was dry and in good condition and that the traffic density was heavy.

An intersection to review?

There have already been some accidents related to this intersection in the pastindicates the mayor of Lac-au-Saumon, Gérard Grenier.

” Since the accident, every time we show up around the corner [route] 132, we look a little more and we realized that there was perhaps a row of posts just before the stop sign. If someone is stopped in the right place, there is a section of visibility that we don’t have. Maybe that’s what caused the accident. »

The mayor was waiting for the coroner’s recommendations before making a decision regarding the intersection of Route 132 and Route du Lac à Pitre.

The coroner made no recommendation, but Mr. Grenier said he was still in discussion with Transports Québec on the matter. It was already planned that we would meet following the [dépôt du] report and that, even if there was no recommendation, we were going to look together to see if there weren’t certain elements to improvehe explains.

The mayor wants to take the necessary actions to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

We are in a small community, we know each other from one village to another. It’s a trauma for everyoneemphasizes Mr. Grenier.

With information from Roxanne Langlois