A Gatineau couple did everything to save the lives of two young men after a violent face-to-face Saturday night on Highway 50 in Outaouais, but they ultimately succumbed to their injuries.
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“I will remain marked, that’s for sure. I constantly see in my head their faces, their eyes. We’ve just been thinking about it since yesterday [samedi]… I would have liked so much that they survived”, breathes Cynthia Bolduc.
She was returning to her home in Gatineau with her husband when a truck ahead of them on Highway 50 was hit head-on by a car that veered out of its lane. The collision occurred around 6 p.m. in the Lochaber-Partie-Ouest sector.
Photo provided by Cynthia Bolduc
Good Samaritans Cynthia Bolduc and Paul Mineault.
“We immediately got out of the car. I almost fell on the ground, the pavement was so much like a skating rink. I had a hard time standing up on this ice, ”continues Paul Mineault on the phone.
This one managed the traffic on the highway with the small flashlight of his cellphone. During this time, his spouse, who is a nursing assistant by profession, intervened with the injured.
Ejected from the vehicle
Photo provided by TVA Gatineau-Ottawa/Night camera
The car that strayed from its lane was violently hit.
“The passenger had already died in the car, she says, still in shock from the images of the scene. So I went to see the second man, who was thrown out of the car. He was face first in the snow and didn’t even have his shoes on. »
When he stopped breathing, she began resuscitation maneuvers which lasted several minutes before help arrived. Other passers-by helped her by taking over. The group even used the defibrillator from a passing Hydro-Quebec truck to try to save the young man’s life.
“I’m used to it in my work, but it was destabilizing because I wasn’t in an organized setting. It was System D in a really chaotic accident scene,” Ms. Bolduc explained.
The deaths of John Deeb and Johnny Khalil, both from Ontario and aged 30, were confirmed the same evening in a hospital. The driver of the second vehicle escaped with minor injuries.
Problematic plot
Traffic is in the opposite direction in certain sectors of this highway, including the one where the collision took place, which is problematic, according to the couple who regularly uses it.
“There are so many fatal accidents that it is nicknamed ‘the road of death’. This is deplorable because the problem has been known for a long time. We are widening the highway, but during this time, the lanes are still not separated in this risk zone, ”says Cynthia Bolduc.
Known issues
The widening of the 50 has also been demanded on several occasions by local citizens.
“There should be at least cement barriers to separate the lanes in order to avoid face-to-face like that, as they did on certain parts”, insisted her spouse, Paul Mineault.
He also deplored the state of the road that evening: “We were leaving Bécancour, so we did several highways. Arriving on the 50, it is not well lit, there was almost no abrasive. It was really dangerous,” he said.
The Sûreté du Québec is continuing its investigation to understand the causes of this frontal collision.