Devastated parents are making a strong plea against drunk driving after a possibly intoxicated woman killed a 15-year-old boy and seriously injured another while hitting a scooter over the weekend.
“My guy, it was everything for me, loose in a trembling voice Julie Ménard. I do not have anything. I don’t even know what I’m going to do to get there without him. »
On the night of Saturday to Sunday, she believed that it was her son, Jonathan Jerome, who was knocking on the door of her house in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
Photo QMI Agency, Maxime Deland
Mme Ménard instead welcomed the police, who came to tell her what she feared the most.
Jonathan was returning from a party aboard his scooter with Samy Bouchard as a passenger on Chemin Sainte-Thérèse, in Carignan, Montérégie, around 8:40 p.m. on Saturday evening.
Photo courtesy, Julie Ménard
Jonathan Jerome passed away at the scene.
Saved by his friend
The two friends were probably immobile at a temporary traffic light, in a work zone, when a 33-year-old driver hit them head-on.
Photo courtesy, Sylvain Bouchard
Recovering from serious injuries, Samy Bouchard was in a coma earlier this week.
Jonathan was pronounced dead at the scene. As for Samy, he suffered major injuries, including open fractures to the femurs.
“It was his friend’s body that saved him,” says his father, Sylvain Bouchard.
Photo courtesy, Sylvain Bouchard
Samy Bouchard was possibly protected by the driver of the scooter during the impact.
The one who will blow out his 16 candles in a month was still in an artificial coma on Tuesday, but was able to breathe on his own.
Alcohol and speed
For now, the Richelieu–Saint-Laurent intermunicipal police board is cautious about the exact causes of the tragedy.
“Speed and alcohol remain among the hypotheses [parmi] others. […] They [font] still [l’objet d’une] investigation and [sont] likely to explain the accident,” said spokesperson Jean-Luc Tremblay.
Photo QMI Agency, Maxime Deland
Such an explanation generates a painful cocktail of emotions in the parents of the victims.
“It’s terrible to know that my guy would have done everything right [sur la route], advancing, powerless, Julie Ménard. I was just afraid that something like this would happen. »
“I hope this person [la conductrice] going to pay and that she won’t get a ridiculous sentence for what she did. She ruined my life. »
Photo QMI Agency, Maxime Deland
Rage
Sylvain Bouchard, for his part, felt a certain “rage” when he learned of the circumstances of the accident.
The forties will also have the difficult task of announcing the death of Jonathan to Samy. “He was his best friend. He was like his brother, and for me, a son, he laments. Everyone can see the impact it can have […], one drink too many. »
No arrests have been made at this time, the Richelieu-Saint-Laurent intermunicipal police board said on Tuesday.
sad twist of fate, a traffic flagman was fatally hit on Wednesday afternoonexactly in the same place where the scooter on which the two teenagers were riding was hit.
– With Frederique Giguère