Violent car accident kills 16-year-old Noah Leewis-Mercier

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Soulanges MNA Marilyne Picard announced Wednesday the tragic death of Noah-Leewis Mercier, her husband’s son, who died from injuries sustained in a violent car accident Saturday near Sources Blvd. overpass in Pointe-Claire.

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Mercier would have turned 17 on December 22, Picard wrote on his Facebook page.

“Our family, which has already suffered so much with the illness of one of our children, is very close. We will take advantage of this festive moment of rest to console ourselves ”, he wrote.

Police said the 18-year-old driver of the vehicle remains in critical condition. The cause of the fatal accident is still under investigation.

“At this point, we do not know what caused the accident or the circumstances that led to that accident,” Montreal police spokesman JP Brabant said. “There are elements to evaluate and they are still under investigation.”

Saturday’s fatal accident is the second accident in less than a month in the Sources Blvd. overpass area near Highway 20.

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Another vehicle crashed in the same location on November 30. In that accident, the driver survived the crash and suffered only minor injuries.

In both recent accidents, the crashed cars ended up under a winding pedestrian walkway that runs along Highway 20 and Cardinal Avenue.

In the first accident, the car stopped near a bus stop on the south side of Cardinal Ave., directly under the pedestrian overpass.

The second accident, which occurred around 4 a.m. on Saturday, damaged the railings, lighting and the surface. of the pedestrian overpass.

The city of Pointe-Claire subsequently closed the walkway overpass indefinitely on Monday. A lockable metal fence was installed to prevent anyone from crossing the paved overpass.

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Users of the flyover, including cyclists, are asked to use the tunnel at Valois train station, about 750 meters west of the flyover.

There are entrances to the pedestrian overpass on both Cardinal Ave. and de l’Église Ave. in Pointe-Claire. Normally, the accesses to the walkways do not have any type of barrier to prevent a vehicle from circulating on them.

Initial reports said the car containing the two teens was traveling south on Sources Blvd. when it lost control.

“That was the first hypothesis, one of the hypotheses that we are looking at,” Brabant said. “Speeding would be a factor and speeding created the circumstances that led to the driver losing control.”

He said a mechanical inspection of the vehicle would also be done.

Although there appears to be a damaged section of the railing at the Sources flyover, Brabant did not rule out the possibility that the car had been traveling on the pedestrian walkway.

“Good question. We don’t close doors. We met with some witnesses and there is an analysis to be done.”

He said the death of the 16-year-old passenger is tragic news as the Christmas holidays draw near.

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