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Metropolis Reality Forums Ť Quebec to hold inquiry after 5 die, 6 hurt in Lava ť

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   Quebec to hold inquiry after 5 die, 6 hurt in Lava

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Topic: Quebec to hold inquiry after 5 die, 6 hurt in Lava (Read 476 times)

AmberJ
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Quebec to hold inquiry after 5 die, 6 hurt in Lava
« on: Oct 1^st, 2006, 6:19pm »

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Quebec to hold inquiry after 5 die, 6 hurt in Laval

1 hour, 26 minutes ago

By Dene Moore

LAVAL, Que. (CP) - The sun was shining on a beautiful autumn day when Robert Hotte and his girlfriend were shopping for a carpet.

They were en route from one store to another, crossing an overpass, when their world went dark - the overpass dropped out from beneath them, plunging them several metres onto a highway below.

"I was wondering what the. . . what is happening," Hotte said Sunday after a sleepless night thinking about his close call.

A 20-metre section of the three-lane overpass, two tonnes of concrete and steel, gave way over the noon hour on Saturday in Laval, north of Montreal. It was the second overpass that collapsed in the Laval area in the last six years.

Five people were crushed to death in two vehicles on the highway underneath. Six others were injured, two of them critically, when their vehicles toppled into the abyss. The Quebec government will hold a public inquiry into the collapse.

As Hotte's vehicle plummetted, he recalled calling out to his girlfriend beside him.

"Anne-Marie." Then, darkness.

"We went down, falling with the bridge. It was all dark," he said. "It was like being on a roller-coaster."

Their vehicle smashed into the debris-scattered asphalt, landing on the passenger side.

They were helped, first by bystanders who witnessed the collapse and then by police, to crawl out the driver's side window now above them.

They waited in a police car for an ambulance to arrive and take them to Sacre-Coeur hospital in Montreal.

Hotte was not seriously injured; he walked to the ambulance. His girlfriend will remain in hospital for observation for a couple of days.

"I've only got bruises on my forehead and some pain in the chest," he said.

The two vehicles removed from the rubble were crushed so badly they barely reached the knees of one firefighter at the scene.

It took rescue workers 15 hours, using cranes and heavy machinery to painstakingly break up the concrete into huge slabs in order to reach the flattened cars.

Quebec provincial police identified three of the five dead as: Jean-Pierre Hamel, 40, his partner Sylvie Beaudet, 40, and his brother, 44-year-old brother, Gilles. They were all from Laval.

As for the injured, Dr. Jacques Laplante of Sacre-Coeur hospital, said of the four victims brought to his hospital, two of them were in critical condition and one of those was "in a very critical state."

That patient, a man in his 40s, was in surgery all night for a brain injury, said Laplante, director of medical services.

"He was in a very bad state but today the news is better," Laplante said Sunday. "He's awake today and can answer some questions."

The other critical patient had also improved.

"His condition is much better. He's out of danger," the doctor said.

Three of the four patients - three men and a woman ranging in age from 40 to 60 years old - suffered spinal injuries that required surgery on Sunday but Laplante said none appeared to be paralyzed.

Laplante said all four are fortunate to have survived and, barring complications, expects them all to fully recover.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest toured the site Sunday and announced the public inquiry into the collapse, which he described as "inexplicable."

An inspector was sent to the overpass on Saturday, after emergency calls reported chunks of concrete falling from the structure.

Transport Minister Michel Despres said the inspector found no reason to close the overpass.

"If there was the slightest indication that the bridge could fall, it would have been closed," Despres said at a news conference Sunday.

At 11:58 a.m. the transport department inspector was on the scene. At 12:37 p.m., Hotte's car plunged into the gaping hole where the overpass used to be.

Hotte said he didn't notice any cars around him before the crash but saw them in the chaotic scene that followed.

"I saw people trying to help the other two cars and then someone came to my car to see if I (needed) help. It was very quick," he said.

He commended police and emergency workers for the way they handled the situation.

"I think there's a miracle in all this, and I'm relieved that both me and my girlfriend, Anne-Marie, got out of this. . . not feeling too much pain," he said. "When we look at what happened to other people. . . when you think of all this you say, 'It could have been me instead."'

Quebec provincial police spokesman Jayson Gauthier said the families of the identified victims had some idea of the bad news they were going to get after the three, who were travelling together, failed to return home on Saturday.

Authorities hadn't yet identified the occupants of the other vehicle, Gauthier said. The road is a busy thoroughfare between Laval and Montreal but not a major artery. It will remain closed for some time but Laval transit authorities have put extra trains and buses in place to ease traffic concerns.

Witness Cameus Menase was heading to his office when he saw cars in front of him disappear.

"All of a sudden, I saw a truck then a car then a motorcycle fall down into the highway," Menase said.

"Another 500 feet and I would have been with them."

Menase said he takes his children to school across the same overpass every weekday.

"I thank God this was a Saturday," he said.

It's the second overpass that collapsed in the Laval area in the last six years.

In 2000, a man died when a section of overpass that had been under construction for six months collapsed and fell on the car he was riding in.

A coroner's report later concluded a construction company didn't properly secure the concrete beams, and accused the province's construction industry of shoddy work and questionable corporate practices.

« Last Edit: Oct 1^st, 2006, 10:30pm by AmberJ »

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