Snowplow driver had no permit when couple killed

A snow truck driver who ran over and killed an elderly Montreal couple last year was driving with an expired permit when the accident happened, a coroner's inquest was told.

Coroner Luc Malouin is overseeing the inquest into four deaths by snowplows, incidents that sparked outrage about Montreal's snow-clearing operations, its hiring of private contractors, and safety and driving standards.

Solange St-Onge, 72, and Jean-Paul Pinet, 71, Lucie Rivard Lanouette, 76, and Rajaa Benkiran, 49, died in three separate incidents in Montreal last winter involving snow trucks.

St-Onge and Pinet, a married couple, were holding hands while crossing Sherbrooke Street near the Notre-Dame Hospital when they were killed Feb. 3.

Lanouette was run over by a plow in the northwestern borough of Ahuntsic a few hours later.

On Monday, Malouin heard from a Montreal police investigator who confirmed that Marc Choquette, a private snow contractor, was driving with an expired permit and had worked six days in a row when he hit St-Onge and Pinet.

Choquette also didn't keep driving logs required by law and did not respect a pedestrian crossing sign.

The inquest has also heard from road collision experts who testified that Benkiran was at least 50 metres away from any pedestrian crossing zone when she dashed across Jean-Brillant Street in Côte-des-Neiges and was run over by a snowplow in December 2008.

The truck drivers involved in the accidents will take the stand on Tuesday.

On Thursday, the inquiry will hear from Montreal's head of snow-clearing operations.