The guilty verdict of the trucker accused of negligence for the monster pileup on the A-440 in Laval in 2019 is welcomed as a relief by paramedic Mathieu Goyer, who was among the first on site on the day of the tragedy.
• Read also: Four dead in a monster pileup on the 440: the truck driver found guilty of criminal negligence
The latter was about to end his shift with his colleague Marc-André Gaudreau when the event occurred very close to where he was in the company of a colleague, which caused he was able to be on the scene very quickly.
For him, the guilty verdict of the trucker responsible for the pileup that killed four people puts an end to this event for good, which will allow the victims and other people involved to move on.
“It’s a relief for us because with the event, the tragedy, as much for us as for all the victims, to see that justice has finally been done and that justice has taken care of it, for us it’s a form of relief,” he said in an interview with LCN.
Mr. Goyer says he has been able to put the event behind him, although he still has some images that sometimes come to mind.
“It’s going to happen from time to time when certain situations remind us of it,” he says. But I could say that now it’s behind us.”
“We still have after-effects which will never be forgotten, it will remain engraved in our memories, but for several years, it has been better for me as much as my colleague Marc-André,” he continues. We managed to turn the page with difficulty, but we succeeded.
The two paramedics were also honored for their bravery at the National Assembly of Quebec following the tragedy.
For Mathieu Goyer, like his colleague, there was never any question of leaving the profession despite the post-traumatic shock.
“We never thought about stopping or giving up. We always wanted to come back. Initially, the CSST wanted to relocate us, but we wanted to get back on the road together, he mentions. What allowed us to come back was the supervision [psychologique] that we received.”
Watch the full interview in the video above