A Quebec Coroner’s Office investigation has found that the drowning death of a 72 year-old Quyon woman that occurred as a result of a washed out road in April 2019 was preventable . . .

Louise Lortie Séguin was driving home from a friend’s house in the early hours of April 20, 2019 when her vehicle fell into a deep crevasse that had formed from a chemin Bronson-Bryant culvert being washed out in the Municipality of Pontiac (MoP). She was pulled from her car before being transported to the Pontiac Hospital in Shawville, where she was pronounced dead at 4:48 a.m.

Prior to Séguin’s fatal accident, a 911 call was made to the MRC des Collines emergency call centre at 2:32 a.m. by a couple to relay that they had tried to drive down Bronson Bryant but had discovered the collapsed road, according to the report completed by coroner Dr. Marie Pinault. The crevasse was later measured as being roughly 21 metres wide and nearly eight metres deep, with a strong current and rain influencing the swelling creek below.

Pinault noted that the dispatcher seemed to have difficulty understanding the extent of the road’s collapse.

“Listening to the recordings, we note that the dispatcher does not realize the extent of the crevasse despite the clear explanations provided by the [caller],” Pinault wrote in a translated copy of the report that was obtained by THE EQUITY.

After receiving the information the dispatcher relayed the information to her supervisor who then contacted the municipal director of public works to inform him of the incident, although information was lacking, given that the director affirmed that there had been an inspection of that culvert the day prior, with no problems reported.

Another call was placed, this time to the non-emergency police line, at 3:05 a.m. by a woman who said she received a call from another woman who noticed the road sagging on Bronson Bryant. The woman who called her was one-half of the couple who placed the initial emergency call half an hour prior, as her and her partner were alarmed that there was no help on site yet. The dispatcher informed the woman who made the call that public works were aware and should be on route shortly.

At 3:24 a.m., Séguin was on her way home, driving down Bronson-Bryant. At this point, the couple had positioned their car so that its lights were making the gap in the road visible to any ongoing drivers. However, Pinault noted that Séguin’s relatives have said that she would not have stopped in the middle of the night at the request of a stranger.

“One can think that a police vehicle would have more dissuaded Mrs. Lortie from continuing her journey,” Pinault wrote (translation).

According to the report, the man who was on scene at the time of the accident ran after Séguin as she continued to drive towards the crevasse, waving her down as his partner honked their car horn to no avail.

When a police officer was finally called for and then dispatched at 3:25 a.m., it was due to a second call from the couple and it was in response to Séguin not stopping, and her call falling into the crevasse and overturning.

patched to the scene, and they arrived shortly after the police did at 3:47 a.m.

While the dispatcher’s inability to accurately relay the circumstances of the washout to the public works department after the first call was a factor in how things played out, Pinault also pointed to the public works department as culpable for not responding quicker.

The department’s director was notified of the scope of the situation at 3:56 a.m. following the second 911 call, and an employee arrived on scene at 4:42 a.m.

“It is clear that a more rapid response from public works could have probably avoided this unfortunate accident,” she wrote (translation).

The procedure for emergency calls related to public works dysfunction were changed in the summer of 2019, by the MRC des Collines Police Department. It is now required that the person in charge of public works should assess the situation and contact the police within 15 minutes of the emergency call coming in. If no one from public works is available to respond within 15 minutes, police must be contacted by the dispatcher.

Pinault noted that these procedural changes are to her satisfaction.

THE EQUITY reached out to Municipality of Pontiac Mayor Joanne Labadie for comment, but she said that her priority was arranging a follow up meeting with the coroner to gain clarification on some things, as she said via text that she had “more questions than answers.”

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