Faced with unimaginable chaos, one of the first police officers on the scene of the monster pileup of the 440 recounted on Friday with emotions his efforts to save a young woman trapped in his vehicle.
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“The scene was so big, there was fire everywhere, even on the sides of the highway, there were lots of destroyed vehicles,” testified agent Martin Guénette, of the Sûreté du Québec.
The police officer testified Friday at the trial of Jagmeet Grewal, the trucker charged with criminal negligence causing death, in connection with the monster pileup in which four people died on August 5, 2019 in Laval.
Photo QMI Agency, Joêl Lemay
Several first responders, including police officer Martin Guénette, tried to help Patricia Laplante who was stuck in her car.
When he arrived at the scene, the policeman was struck by the extent of the damage.
“It’s the biggest scene I’ve seen in my career,” he said, adding that as a patrolman assigned to the highway station for several years, he had covered many road accidents.
Screenshot, TVA Nouvelles
“Totally Chaos”
On the spot, lots of people were running in all directions, he remembers.
“It was total chaos,” he said.
He then headed towards a car completely twisted by the force of the impact. The driver was stuck there. Around her, fires raged.
“I wasn’t able to untangle her, there was too much fire, too much smoke,” he testified.
Archival photo
Ms. Laplante’s Bolt after the impact.
The policeman therefore ran to his patrol car to retrieve an axe, then returned and tried to free the lady.
Helped by other first responders, he even hooked a rope to the car to pull it and thus get it as far away as possible from the flames and the dense smoke.
It was finally the firefighters who managed to get the lady out of the car, using life-saving pliers.
“I remember his look …”, he launched, too moved to finish his sentence.
“She survived,” reminded him of Judge Yanick Laramée, who is presiding over the trial, to reassure him.
never stopped
On the scene, the policeman was also arrested by a person, who said to him: “It’s as if the trucker had never stopped”, he testified.
Moreover, the motorist who was following the accused in the seconds before the collision never saw him brake.
Frédéric St-Yves knows this section of Highway 440 well. He knows that when approaching the ramp to take the 15, there is often a slowdown. He therefore slowed down, but not the truck in front of him, driven by Mr. Grewal.
“The distance between me and the tractor-trailer has increased,” he said. Then I heard an impact and saw debris from destroyed cars in the air,” he said earlier this week at the Laval courthouse.
No brake lights
“I didn’t see him use the brakes because I didn’t see the red lights come on,” he said.
According to the Crown’s theory, the truck driver knew he was unfit to drive. He had poor control of his diabetes and neglected to take his medication.
He had also previously been declared unfit for life to drive a truck due to his mental illness. If he was able to find himself behind the wheel of a semi-trailer, it was because the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec had given him his license by mistake, we learned earlier at trial.