(Montreal) The Ontarian who lost his life Sunday in the gondola accident at Mont-Tremblant station was an altruistic soldier who was devoted to his family, his brother said Tuesday.
Sheldon Johnson, 50, of Kingston, Ontario, was a member of the 5e Division of Canada and had been in the military for 20 years, the military said in a statement, offering condolences to the soldier’s family, colleagues and friends.
In a statement on behalf of the family, his brother Shawn described Sheldon Johnson as “the loving father of three beautiful children – two survivors whom he misses terribly now, and an angel in heaven whom he cuddles today”.
He remembered a man “devoted to his family, a wonderful, caring brother, a friend”, someone “who always thinks of others before thinking of himself”.
“His life was too short, he had so much more love to give,” his brother wrote. He will be truly missed. »
A spokesman for the Canadian Armed Forces, Captain Matt Zalot, said Mr Johnson was a vehicle mechanic with the 21e Electronic Warfare Regiment, based in Kingston. The army says in its statement that it is offering support to Mr Johnson’s family “during this extremely difficult time”.
Investigators from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) and the Commission for Standards, Equity and Occupational Health and Safety (CNESST) were back on Tuesday at the Laurentides resort, northwest of Montreal, to search, on the mountainside, the site of the accident, which occurred late Sunday morning.
Mr Johnson’s partner, injured in the crash, was taken to hospital in critical condition. The SQ said Tuesday that the woman, in her 50s, also from Ontario, remained hospitalized in critical condition. While doctors managed to stabilize her on Monday, she is not completely out of danger, Sergeant Audrey-Anne Bilodeau said.
The couple were ejected when the scenic gondola was struck by the mast of a drill rig that was moved below, about halfway up the slope. According to the police, the drill had first struck a first gondola, unoccupied, before colliding with the second, which transported Mr. Johnson and his companion.
Sergeant Bilodeau said investigators were continuing to talk to witnesses and wanted to interview the operator who was at the controls of the drill, a man in his thirties who police said was not yet fit to speak to investigators. His employer said he was hospitalized with nervous shock after the accident.
In a press release published on Monday evening, the management of Forage M2P, owner of the machinery, offered its condolences to the families of the victims.
Company president Maxime Patry said the drill was being moved along a path planned by the station owner. Mr. Patry maintains that the “sad set of circumstances” of Sunday “constitutes an isolated incident which would be the fruit, at first sight, either of a human error, of communication or of a mechanical failure”.
“It would be clearly premature, even reckless, to put forward any hypothesis whatsoever to explain this accident,” he added.
A spokeswoman for Station Mont-Tremblant, Catherine Lacasse, said in an email that she would not comment further due to ongoing investigations by the SQ and CNESST.
The time to conduct its investigation, the CNESST had ordered the interruption of the panoramic gondola service, which transports visitors to the top of the mountain. Mme Lacasse said most other station operations resumed on Tuesday.