A Montreal man whose father was fatally struck head-on by an SUV in 2019 believes the government should do its part to discourage Quebecers from buying large vehicles.
“I say to myself: If it is more dangerous and more people die from it, then why don’t we regulate it more?” says Catherine Carle, 35 years old.
On November 1, 2019, 30 minutes after speaking to her on the phone, her father, Denis Carle, was hit head-on by an SUV while crossing Crémazie Boulevard very close to Foucher Street.
“It was a Friday evening,” Ms. Carle said. He said to himself, “I’m not making myself dinner, I’m going to the little local restaurant for Putin and hot dogs.” He crossed the street somewhere he wasn’t supposed to go, listening to music. »
According to the coroner’s report, Mr. Carle crossed the street at a location where there was no pedestrian crossing and he likely never saw or heard the SUV, a 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander, approaching him about 35 miles away. /H. The coroner concluded that his behavior contributed to the accident, as did the inattentive driver who had recently looked at his cell phone installed on a cell phone that was giving him directions to his route.
A size that is unforgiving
When Catherine Carle arrived at the hospital that day, she quickly realized that the size of the vehicle that hit her father had played a large role in the severity of his injuries: fractures throughout his body as well as severe head injuries.
“That was one of the first things the emergency doctor told us on the evening of the accident,” explains Ms. Carle.
“He told us it was the altitude [du VUS] in proportion to his body” that his head hit heavily against the windshield. “A normal vehicle is lower, the head impact would only have occurred when it hit the ground,” Ms Carle continued.
Denis Carle died 12 days after the accident surrounded by his loved ones. He was 59 years old.
It was very difficult for his family to accept his death. “It’s pretty traumatic. “You can’t prepare for someone who’s not even 60 years old and in perfect health to leave you,” Ms. Carle says.
A huge fan of football and the San Francisco 49ers, Mr. Carle was also an intellectual who could read three or four books a week. A passionate music lover, he was listening to Elton John at the time of his accident.
Worried about their popularity
Ms. Carle admits that her father “did not exhibit good pedestrian behavior.” Nevertheless, she is convinced that ever larger vehicles in Quebec are giving the most vulnerable road users fewer and fewer chances in a collision.
“It really concerns me,” she says, when asked about the explosion in popularity of large vehicles, particularly SUVs, over the last decade.
She believes the government needs to address the advertising that makes SUVs so attractive and believes the vast majority of their owners don’t really need them.
“I have people around me who have SUVs and I know they don’t need one, but they still have one. Why don’t we have a way to wean the world off SUVs? »