Quebec family decimated in Ontario: “My brother took out the bodies of my mother and my two children”

The mother of the victims killed by an at-fault trucker, who had her eyes glued to her cell phone, spoke out a few days after The newspaper has obtained disturbing video of the tragedy.

• Read also: “It sends a strange message”: the father of the two children killed by a trucker too absorbed by his cell phone deplores the five-year sentence

• Read also: [VIDÉO] Laval family decimated in Ontario: two children and their grandmother killed because the offending truck driver had his eyes glued to his cell phone

In April 2022, the vehicle in which Anik Legault, her mother, her brother and her two children were traveling was hit head-on following a slowdown in traffic on Highway 401, in Belleville, Ontario.

The family was returning from an Easter weekend spent in Toronto.

Émérik Giroux, 7 years old, Maélie Giroux, 3 years old, and their grandmother Chantal Dendooven-Legault, 68 years old, sitting in the back of the vehicle, lost their lives.

Anik Legault and his brother, seated at the front, escaped with minor injuries, but have since had to live with the loss of their loved ones.

“When we had the impact, we never saw anything. Which reassures me a lot, my mother and my children did not suffer. It really happened in the moment,” she shared in her first interview since the tragedy.

Faced with horror after seeing the serious injuries suffered by her loved ones, Anik Legault describes how the minutes following the impact were “surreal”.

“My brother took out the bodies of my mother and my two children. When we see the state of the injuries, my daughter, disfigured, and my guy, the skull bone split open, we realize that this is the end,” she said in an emotional tone.

Mehakdeep Singh, the truck driver accused of dangerous driving causing death and injury, was too busy texting while driving before the tragedy.

The violent collision he caused earned him a five-year prison sentence, a sentence which takes into consideration his sincere remorse as well as his clean criminal record.

For the grieving mother and her loved ones, forgiveness is difficult, especially with the disclosure of evidence that Singh had his eyes glued to his cell phone.

“It wasn’t the first time he did it. The investigator who was in the main investigators told us that there was not a 15-minute sequence inside the truck where he was not looking at his phone,” she revealed during her interview. has Current cases.

Although the prison sentence is not commensurate with the damage caused to the loved ones of the decimated family, for Anik Legault, “it will not bring back the happiness” that she lost.

“Since the accident, I have realized that there are so many people around me who care about me. He remains my father, my brother, my friends, my work colleagues. I met someone who has children too. There are lots of things to come, I’m convinced,” she concludes.

*Watch the full interview in the video above*