An ‘impatient’ driver is on trial for killing a cyclist crossing a pedestrian crossing by ‘aggressively’ overtaking cars ahead.
“He overtook on a whim to save time. I think it was a movement of impatience,” said Simon Bouchard.
The man testified at the trial of Mohammad Ali Mahmoodi, 63, who faces charges of dangerous driving and criminal negligence resulting in death. On July 23, 2020, the defendant was driving his Mercedes E400 on Jacques-Cartier Boulevard West in Longueuil when he fatally caught René Tremblay on his bicycle.
The 52-year-old cyclist had just been overtaken by motorists at a pedestrian crossing.
flat out
But if all vehicles had stopped in front of him, Mohammad Ali Mahmoodi would have slipped between the two lanes.
Photo QMI Agency, Erik Peters
“He really put his foot down, that ass [du véhicule] “He was crushed and drove at full throttle in the direction of the cycle path,” the witness recalled.
According to him, the Mercedes was in “full acceleration” when it hit the cyclist. He estimated his speed at “70 km/h”.
“In the air I saw dust, pieces of plastic, a wheel, the bicycle, the cyclist doing somersaults,” he added. He recalled that the victim was thrown very high into the air, which he imagined was the equivalent of a second-story balcony.
Another motorist, Jean-François Beauchemin, was the first vehicle to stop in front of the pedestrian crossing.
“I made eye contact [avec le cycliste]”I waved at him with a hand he could cross,” he explained.
At the same time, his attention was drawn behind him.
between the two paths
“I heard an engine rev up like it was accelerating,” he said. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a car switching between the two lanes and coming in the opposite direction.
The driver of the Mercedes would have come to a standstill after the impact.
“He went and sat on the curb, I talked nonsense to him, I called him fat. Him, he held his head, he looked shocked,” the witness said.
The driver was arrested and charged nine months after the tragedy. During the trial, Crown Prosecutor Me Marie-Soleil Leclerc will try to prove he engaged in a dangerous maneuver by illegally overtaking.
For his part, the defense attorney, Me Mario Lavigne, told Judge Dominique Dudemaine that his client had not behaved “beyond what is acceptable in society” and specified that he would not overtake, but rather committed an “evasion”. .
The trial will continue this week at the Longueuil courthouse.
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