FREDERIC SERRE
The 1019 Report
As the Sûreté du Québec doubles down on speedy drivers this month with a province-wide campaign urging motorists to slow down, officers in the region have also been responding to a series of accidents, including a serious rear-end collision between a car and a truck in Vaudreuil-Dorion that was caused by an inattentive driver who investigators suspect was talking on his phone.
The collision on April 9 occurred at about 2 p.m. as heavy traffic clogged the eastbound lanes of Highway 40, on the approach to the Île aux Tourtes Bridge.
According to the SQ, a truck stopped in rush-hour traffic near the St. Charles Ave. exit was rear-ended violently by a Hyundai. The impact was severe, the SQ said, and the front end of the car was lodged into the trailer of the truck.
Police and paramedics rushed to the scene to treat the male driver, who was described as having suffered serious injuries. He was trapped in the wreckage of the car before firefighters used the Jaws of Life to extricate him. The man was taken to hospital to be treated for serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
The accident created a massive traffic jam, as SQ officers secured the scene. Investigators suspect the driver was on his phone at the time of the crash and speeding.
2 other incidents
SQ officers were also kept busy on April 14 as they responded to two accidents – one in St. Zotique involving two cars and a scooter, and another in Vaudreuil-Dorion, when a car slammed into a stopped truck.
According to police, two vehicles collided at about 4:15 p.m. on Highway 338 near 6th Ave. in St. Zotique, with the vehicles then hitting a scooter on the road, causing minor injuries to the male teenager scooter operator. Paramedics treated the youth at the scene and transferred him to a hospital.
At about the same time, SQ officers were dispatched to a two-vehicle crash in front of the Belle Patate restaurant on Harwood Blvd. in the old Dorion sector of Vaudreuil-Dorion. The car suffered serious damages, but the unidentified driver was not hurt. The SQ reported that the driver failed to slow down and hit the truck that was stopped in heavy rush-hour traffic.