Family hopes inquiry will prevent more snow truck deaths
4 pedestrians have died in 3 separate accidents involving snow trucks this winter
Rajaa Benkiran, 49, died in mid-December after a snow truck hit her as she walked across Jean Brillant Street in Côte-des-Neiges.
Her son Alami Marrouni Réda said he still has many questions about why his mother died so suddenly.
"Yesterday, I had my 20th birthday … I wanted my mother with me. But unfortunately, because of what happened, she wasn't there," he said.
Quebec's head coroner, Louise Nolet, ordered the public inquiry on Friday. Each of the four deaths that will be put under the microscope involved pedestrians who were swept under the tires of privately-owned snow removal vehicles subcontracted to clean city streets.
Nolet has appointed coroner Jean-Luc Malouin to preside over inquest. No date has been set for the beginning of public hearings.
Second, third and fourth deaths happened on same day
On Tuesday of this week, three more pedestrians died in two accidents with snow trucks within hours of each other.
The first occurred just across the street from Notre-Dame hospital. Jean-Paul Pinet, 71, was on his way to the hospital for prostate cancer treatment. His partner, Solange St-Onge, 72, was with him.
They were crossing Émile-Duployé Avenue at Sherbrooke Street when a snow dump truck made a right turn, right into their path.
Pinet was swept under the wheel of the vehicle and died at the scene. St-Onge was rushed to the hospital across the street with serious injuries. She died a short time later.
Later the same afternoon, Lucie Rivard Lanouette, 76, died as she crossed the street in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville district.
She was returning from a doctor's appointment when she was struck by a snow truck at the corner of Iberville and Fleury streets. She died at the scene.