Quebec Trial - Car Stops to help ducks, Motorcycle hits car (fatality) | GTAMotorcycle.com

Quebec Trial - Car Stops to help ducks, Motorcycle hits car (fatality)

DECIMIS

Well-known member
Difficult situation/case here. Really just tragic all around. I like one comment "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Posting for education purposes, to help avoid being the car or the motorcycle.

Copy and paste from Yahoo!:

MONTREAL - A young driver's decision to stop her car on a highway to help a family of ducks dramatically changed the lives of an entire Quebec family, a jury trial in Montreal heard Tuesday.

It should have been a quick 20-minute motorcycle ride home for Pauline Volikakis and her family to cap what had been a glorious summer day in 2010.

Instead, Volikakis fought back tears as she described how the lives of Andre Roy, her husband of 20 years, and her only child, Jessie, ended so suddenly.

Emma Czornobaj has pleaded not guilty to two counts each of criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing the deaths of Roy, 50, and their 16-year-old daughter.

On the first day of Czornobaj's trial, Crown prosecutors suggested her decision to come to a full stop to help a family of ducks triggered an accident that left the father and daughter dead.

The Crown said in its opening statement that Czornobaj wasn't physically in her car and that the vehicle was stopped, with the engine running and without any emergency lights, in the left lane of Highway 30, south of Montreal.

Prosecutor Annie-Claude Chasse said witness and police testimony will show the accused was on a narrow shoulder patch next to the passing lane, tending to a family of ducks on the roadway.

"Would a reasonable and prudent person, in the same circumstances as was the accused, have done the same?" Chasse asked the jury. "Would that reasonable and prudent person have stopped their car, on a busy highway, in order to save some ducks?"

It was a nice, relaxed Sunday and Volikakis said ice cream was to be on the menu when they arrived home. Roy was driving and his daughter was riding pillion on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, while Volikakis rode her own motorcycle behind them.

The tragedy occurred suddenly.

Volikakis testified she saw a woman walking dangerously along the narrow shoulder on the side of the highway. She also saw a car at a standstill in the passing lane.

"I wondered what she was doing there, it was not the place to be," Volikakis said.

She testified that Roy gestured to the accused as if to warn her it was dangerous for her to be there. Seconds later, his bike slammed into the stationary car, sending both of the occupants in the motorcycle flying.

They were later declared dead in hospital.


Charges against Czornobaj, who is now 25, were laid more than a year later. While the maximum sentences are unlikely, criminal negligence causing death carries a maximum term of life imprisonment, while the charge of dangerous driving causing death comes with a maximum of 14 years in jail. Czornobaj has no previous record.


Earlier on Tuesday, eyewitness Martine Tessier testified she was driving along the same stretch of highway on June 27, 2010. The weather was nice, the sun was setting and the road conditions were excellent.


Tessier said she was driving at about 110 km/h when she saw a woman along the side of the road seemingly trying to shoo along a family of ducks.


"I shouted to my kids (in the car) 'What is she doing there? She's going to get killed," Tessier told the jury.


She testified that, moments later, she was staring down a car, completely stopped with no hazard lights on, with the door open on the driver's side.


"It was close enough that I knew I didn't have time to brake," Tessier said. Instead, she swerved to get around the car. Then she looked back in her rear-view mirror and saw something else hit the vehicle.


"I saw a body go over the car, it was like a rag doll," Tessier said. "I shouted to my daughter to call 911 with my cellphone."


The jury is composed of 10 men and two women, while three weeks have been set aside for the trial.


Proceedings continue Wednesday.
 
Parked her car in the left hand lane of a highway, hazards or not. Unbelievable stupidity
 
This is horrible, i heard about this yesterday...... I've glanced at a few crazy scenes while out for rides. But if i can't see far in front of me, I’m not looking. I saw a guy getting arrested on the DVP, I rubber necked that one AFTER looking as far as I could down the highway and seeing nothing (clear line of sight) I guess the car was on the other side of a bend? I'm so cautious when out for rides, always scanning for idiots, and potential situations. I don't really understand how multiple people didn't see this car, if it was a straight line......
 
This is horrible, i heard about this yesterday...... I've glanced at a few crazy scenes while out for rides. But if i can't see far in front of me, I’m not looking. I saw a guy getting arrested on the DVP, I rubber necked that one AFTER looking as far as I could down the highway and seeing nothing (clear line of sight) I guess the car was on the other side of a bend? I'm so cautious when out for rides, always scanning for idiots, and potential situations. I don't really understand how multiple people didn't see this car, if it was a straight line......

It reads as though her antics distracted the cager in front of the two bikes as well as both riders and they were bearing down on the stopped car at speed. The car was able to swerve out of the way, the first bike not so.
 
I've hit a truck tire after the car in front of me swerved around it at the last second leaving me no time to safely miss it...I can see a similar situation here with various factors contributing
 
I find this one rather troubling. Certainly the driver shouldn't have stopped on a limited access highway, in a lane. Looking at Google Street Views of AR30, south of Montreal, shows me a rather straight highway with unobstructed views and two lanes in either direction. I would be interested in knowing more about the conditions surrounding this crash. Directions? Was the sun a factor? Where, precisely, did the collision take place? My first impression is that there must have been some contributory negligence, but I'd like to have more information.
 
Parked her car in the left hand lane of a highway, hazards or not. Unbelievable stupidity

Didnt even have hazards on.

What this woman did is the definition of criminal negligence
 
It's hard to imagine the scene. Scratching head .... She surely did a really stupid thing, but there are many things not adding up.
 
Didnt even have hazards on.

What this woman did is the definition of criminal negligence

and just left the car there, drivers door open, while she was on a narrow shoulder.
 
Killing people to save ducks...where is her moral compass?
I damn hope she's vegetarian too
 
While I don't condone what the car driver did as it's very wrong... at the same time how does one not notice a car stopped with a door open? I mean for real, what happened to be aware of your surroundings? If I saw anything other than flowing traffic I'm off the throttle until safely through whatever obstacle is behind me. Is that a camo blue civic? I feel bad for all involved but it seems like bad judgment on more than just one person here :dontknow:
 
While I don't condone what the car driver did as it's very wrong... at the same time how does one not notice a car stopped with a door open? I mean for real, what happened to be aware of your surroundings? If I saw anything other than flowing traffic I'm off the throttle until safely through whatever obstacle is behind me. Is that a camo blue civic? I feel bad for all involved but it seems like bad judgment on more than just one person here :dontknow:

Very sad to read what happened...

Roomie,
What if he had a "Auto Pilot" turned on ? And he wasn't able to turn it off? I don't know, very difficult for us to Investigate what happened...
 
I agree. Hard to say what happened. Just seems odd that one wouldn't notice something like that. Still sad either way
 
It's hard to gage distance and speed of a stationary object when travelling at high speed.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk
 
Sounds like the witness car was blocking the view of the bike and when she swerved the bike suddenly had a stationary car in front of it? Either way it was stupid of Emma Czornobaj. Criminal negligence causing death maybe... dangerous driving causing death definitely.
 
I recently dealt with an individual who felt the driver ahead of him wasn't driving fast enough in the left lane. He passed the woman, then stopped his vehicle in the fast lane to get out and yell at her, to tell her that the fast lane is for people in a hurry. He did this while she had four children in the car. Multiple fatality waiting to happen.
 
Years ago my girlfriends sister's car broke down on the 401. She called her boyfriend, an OPP Officer, to ask him what to do.
His reply: Brace for impact.
 
Sounds like the witness car was blocking the view of the bike and when she swerved the bike suddenly had a stationary car in front of it?
I'm sure this is exactly how it went down. Couple this with the motorcycle driver waiving his hand at the lady on the side of the road, as well as possibly checking his mirror to see if she acknowledged him... you look up, car in front swerves at the last second, boom, stationary car right there. From the time he first saw the lady on the side of the road to impact, probably only a few seconds. He never saw the stationary car until it was WAY too late.
 

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