The police are still trying to understand what happened, late Sunday morning, when a drill hit a panoramic gondola at Mont-Tremblant station, killing one person and seriously injuring him.
A man and a woman, Ontarians in their 50s, were thrown from the gondola and fell several meters to the ground. The man died and the woman is still in critical condition in a Montreal hospital.
Late Monday afternoon, the Sûreté du Québec announced that the deceased man is Sheldon Johnson, 50 years old and residing in Kingston, Ontario.
The SQ and the Commission for Standards, Equity and Occupational Health and Safety (CNESST) are investigating to determine the circumstances in which this accident occurred. “Was the person on board (the drill) in the performance of his duties? Why did that machinery come into contact there with the gondola? “, explained Sergeant Audrey-Anne Bilodeau, of the SQ.
The questions are worrying, especially since this machinery “was not necessarily intended to do work on the mountain, that goes without saying, especially not when the mountain is in operation. […] Obviously, an employee would have tried to move, to move this machinery and unfortunately, it is at this moment that there was an impact with the gondola, ”said the policewoman.
The investigation will notably involve an analysis of the machinery itself in order to understand, in particular, if all the equipment was in motion or if the device includes a mast and that only the latter would have been in motion.
Although the hypothesis of criminal negligence cannot be ruled out, “it is certainly too early for us to say whether there would be criminal charges”, indicated Sergeant Bilodeau, specifying that there still have many witnesses to meet. Investigators hope to eventually be able to speak to the injured lady when she is able to do so.
In a press release sent Sunday evening, Station Mont Tremblant indicated that the gondola remained closed until further notice.