Driver faces trial for causing 2 deaths after braking for ducks

LONGUEUIL – The lawyer for 25-year-old Emma Czornobaj said that his client is struggling these days.

Her life has not been the same since the Chateauguay resident helped an animal on a roadway three years ago.

“She’s under a lot of stress. She’s not doing too well,” defence lawyer Marc Labelle told Global News.

In June 2010, police said that the young woman was driving on Highway 30 in Candiac, when she hit the brakes to let some ducks pass.

While she may have saved the lives of the ducks, a motorcycle riding behind her slammed into her stopped car.

Fifty-year-old Andre Roy and his 16-year-old daughter Jessie, both from St-Constant, were killed.

On Wednesday at the Longueuil courthouse, Czornobaj found out she that she will stand trial on four charges: two counts of criminal negligence causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing death.

Crown prosecutor Marie-Claude Chasse said she plans to present about eight witnesses at the trial.

It’s believed that the victims’ wife and mother, Pauline Volikakis, will be one of the witnesses.

Volikakis was riding on another motorcycle behind and saw the whole accident.

Jury selection begins June 2, 2014.

Defence lawyer Marc Labelle said little about his position, except to say what happened that day was an unfortunate accident.

“This is the point the jury will have to decide,” he noted. “This is the question in this case.”