LJudge Marie-Claude Gilbert of the Court of Quebec considered that the accused’s version was plausible and raised doubt in his mind.
On the evening of January 21, 2017, Miguel Bolduc, then aged 18, was driving on Route 112. He had just left the house, after listening to hockey with his father, and went to his girlfriend’s house in Saint-Georges.
In the Robertsonville area, Bolduc stops his Honda Civic at a red light. He takes his cell phone, which was in the passenger seat, and looks at two Snapchat messages sent by two friends. He responds to one of the friends with a photo of him marked with the word “what?”
Miguel Bolduc sets off again at the green light, sending another message and puts his cell phone back on the seat.
Still according to the version of the accused, retained by the court, Miguel Bolduc soon leans towards his radio to increase the volume. He then collided with Danick Lachance, 19, who was walking on the shoulder of Route 112, in the same direction as Miguel Bolduc was traveling.
The driver panicked to see the victim. Other motorists stop and call 9-1-1.
By analyzing the speed of the accused and the distance traveled (3.9 km) after the traffic light, an accident reconstruction expert estimated that the call to emergency services occurred a little over three minutes after sending the Snapchat.
The evidence establishes that the vehicle deviated gradually, with an angle which is not pronounced, during two or three seconds, indicates the judge Gilbert.
“The inattention is momentary, the gesture of touching the radio button can be so mechanical,” recalls the judge. This gesture, which all drivers take without thinking too much, momentarily taking their eyes off the road, does not depart in a marked and significant way from the behavior that a reasonably prudent driver would have had in the circumstances that the accused, in this that time, at that location on Route 112. “
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