A repeat driver will spend five years behind bars for causing a collision that cost the lives of a couple of motorcyclists while he consumed three different types of drugs and was using his cell phone while driving.
“That day, Mathieu Langlois took two lives. Through his unconsciousness and carelessness, he got behind the wheel knowing very well what he had consumed. He played Russian roulette with the lives of others,” lamented Andrée Croteau at the Sorel courthouse.
On August 15, 2021, his brother Martin Croteau was taking a Spyder motorcycle ride with his partner, Lyne Rheault, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon to mark their first day of vacation.
The victim Lyne Rheault, 59 years old
Photo taken from the Témiscamingue Funeral Cooperative website
The 51-year-old motorcyclist and his 59-year-old passenger were traveling on Route 255 in Baie-du-Febvre when they were hit head-on by a vehicle which deviated from its lane in the opposite direction for an unknown reason. The impact of the face-to-face encounter left the two victims with no chance.
The victim Martin Croteau, 51 years old.
Photo taken from the Yves Houle Funeral Center website
Cocktail of drugs and cell phone
Mathieu Langlois, the driver of the car, was sentenced to 5 and a half years in prison after pleading guilty last week to impaired driving causing death.
During the collision, the 43-year-old man had been using cocaine, methamphetamines and PCPy, according to blood sample analysis. Moreover, 17 methamphetamine tablets were found in his possession.
“It is difficult to quantify, the effects [de ces drogues] on someone. But for this type of substance, as soon as they are detected, we commit the offense of impaired faculties,” explains to Newspaper Crown prosecutor Me Rosalie Audette-Bourdeau.
Langlois, however, claims that “it is the consultation of his cell phone which is responsible for his loss of attention”, we can read in the joint summary of facts.
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A first warning
The one who has several criminal records had already had a first warning. In 2018, he lost his driving license for a year and was fined $1,100 for driving while impaired by alcohol. With two passengers in his car, he missed a curve and ended his race in a shed.
“It won’t have helped to make him understand anything. He starts again, kills two people and scars everyone who loved them for life,” confided Andrée Croteau, adding that that day, all of her little brother’s dreams went up in smoke.
Judge Marc-Nicolas Foucault hopes that Langlois gets the message: “It took lives, it’s unacceptable,” said the magistrate while sentencing him.
For the relatives of the victims, the sentence will “never live up to” their loss, even if justice has been done.
“This is a step in the right direction. I will finally be able to turn the page on this sad chapter in my life,” said Darcy Rheault, Lyne’s son.
According to him, his mother had always taken care to be very careful when riding her Spyder motorcycle, which she had purchased a few years earlier.
Upon his release from prison, Mathieu Langlois will also be banned from driving for a period of 10 years.