A trucker who fatally hit a cyclist on the Plateau simply threw the stuck bike under his vehicle before continuing his journey as if nothing had happened, he was told on Thursday at his trial for fatal hit-and-run.
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Photo QMI Agency, Joël Lemay
Brandon Marchand-Bibeau, accused.
“It’s the first time it’s happened to me, I don’t know how to react,” said Brandon Marchand-Bibeau during a police interrogation just after the tragedy that occurred on September 27, 2021.
Saying he suspected he had just run into someone and then changed his mind right after, the 26-year-old accused seemed destabilized in the video of his interrogation, presented Thursday at the Montreal courthouse.
According to the Crown’s evidence, Marchand-Bibeau was in his truck when he made a turn at the corner of Parc and Mont-Royal avenues. Except that he didn’t see that a cyclist was on his way. Andrea Rovere, 31, was run over as his bike was dragged 300 meters.
Photo taken from LinkedIn
Andrea Rovere
Blind spots
“The driver then pulled the bike out from under his truck to move it to the curb and continued on to the construction site where he was to deliver gravel,” says an expert report which was based on the testimony of a postman who passed by.
Marchand-Bibeau was arrested shortly after, in the Outremont sector.
“It’s not for the accident that you’re here, it’s not to have stopped you,” explained the investigator.
Looking overwhelmed by the events, Marchand-Bibeau then said he was “in shock”, swearing that he had felt nothing during the collision.
“There are plenty of blind spots,” he said in police questioning.
The trial of Marchand-Bibeau, who pleaded not guilty, continues Friday before Judge Pierre Labelle.