Still no response a year after the tragedy

Photo Stevens LeBlanc
The vehicle in which took place, Michael Fiset, and Pierre Thibault remained stuck after crashing into a blade of snow, on march 15, 2017. The bodies of the two men had been raised out of the vehicle in the aftermath of the storm, after police officers had shoveled to clear the van.

Jean-François Racine

Thursday, march 15, 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Thursday, march 15, 2018 00:00

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A year after the tragic death of Michael Fiset and Pierre Thibault, who died in their car at Saint-Pierre-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud, the coroner is about to file his report on what happened during this terrible winter storm of march 15, 2017.

While the relatives still live difficult to their grief, mother Nature has ill-chosen his moment on Wednesday to send them on the head another dump of snow with a few roads closed in the area of Montmagny, including interstate 20.

“Around march 15, it is days pretty rough for us. We are still looking for the why and the how. We ask the same questions. We all agree also to say that they would not have had to leave. We are going to accuse who ? ” asks Olivier Fiset, a cousin of Michael.

A year to the day after the tragedy, the coroner completes his work. “Unless a situation out of our control, my report will be made public on march 20 “, responded by e-mail to the deputy chief coroner Luc Malouin, manager of the survey.

Waiting

Apart from the weather conditions, the families still have no response from the authorities to shed light on these two deaths.

The neighbors of Michael, Réjean Lavoie and Maryse Frippiat, had seen Michael Fiset leave to 16 h on the day of the storm. “We said that it did not make sense. It was announced winds up to 120 km/h “, remembers Mr. Lavoie.

The widow of Pierre Thibault and Michael Fiset did not want to comment on. Valérie Tanguay, who is the spouse of Mr. Thibault responded simply that it had not yet received the report.

Usually, the coroner’s office sends embargoed report to the families concerned. A sister of Pierre Thibault has also declined requests from the Newspaper.

Conclusions

Lawyer Marc Bellemare, who accompanies the joint, was unaware of the date of publication of the report, next Tuesday. A civil suit is not excluded, but the former minister of Justice did not want to specify who might be targeted by such a query.

“When we have the report, we’ll react to it. We have our strategies dependent on conclusions. The information is difficult to obtain, ” says mr. Bellemare. The conduct of the individuals themselves as well as the conduct of those who had the responsibility of bringing relief to the victims will be in the balance at the time of making a decision.

For the past 35 years, the coroner Malouin has written major reports on the tragedy of the Landslides on the death of Rebekah Levesque in a youth centre and, more recently, on the death of Eloise Dupuis, a Jehovah’s witness.

The dead in their vehicle

• Michael Fiset and Pierre Thibault died in their car at Saint-Pierre-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud.

• They are refugees in their truck stuck in the snow.

• They have asked for help several times.

• Their bodies were found on march 15, 2017.

• The two victims went to knock at a door without getting an answer.