By Chelsey St-Pierre

On the evening of March 20, 2021, a tragic scene unfolded on Highway 40 near the Saint-Charles exit in Kirkland involving a multi-vehicle drag race crash. At least four people had to be hospitalized and a 15-year old girl died.

Last week Francis Lawrence was sentenced to a 54-month prison term for causing the crash that killed Veronica Gashi.

The investigation conducted by Quebec’s provincial police (SQ) revealed that Lawrence was driving between 160 to 200 kilometres per hour with twice the legal blood-alcohol limit while he had three passengers in his car.

Following the crash, Lawrence was hospitalized in critical condition and was later charged with multiple counts including; dangerous driving causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm to which he pled guilty on February 13, 2023.

According to a statement of facts read into the court record last year, a meet up at the Fairview Mall parking lot was planned for a group of racers, who had dispersed from a lot in Laval earlier the same day. n