Nathan Spolia, 10, misses his grandmother. The pair would often go for walks together.
“She enjoyed it,” Spolia said recalling how independent she was. “She was fine by herself, she didn’t need help from anyone.”
But on Dec. 3, Eugénie Liautaud, 85, was killed by someone driving a vehicle while crossing the street in Laval, Que.
“She was just getting groceries,” said Alexandre Liautaud, another grandson visiting from Vancouver. “So she was coming back from the grocery store, walking to the bus stop like she always does.”
It happened just before 5 p.m. on Saturday, at the intersection of de la Concorde Boulevard and de la Normandie Road.
According to Laval police, the driver, an 80-year-old woman, was attempting to make a left-hand turn on to de la Concorde when Eugénie was struck.
She died at the scene.
“I couldn’t believe it at first,” Alexandre said, adding Eugénie was a survivor.
“She had survived breast cancer. She had survived many other difficulties in her life,” he said, explaining it was what made it that much harder to grasp that she’d died doing something she always did.
Spolia added his grandmother was always very careful when crossing the street.
“She was alert. She’d look both ways … actually some times more,” he said. “I never, never had to help her with crossing, anything. She was fine by herself.”
Police say for now, there are no criminal charges, which concerns the Liataud family.
“It is the responsibility of the driver to make sure when they are driving to stop properly and before driving on (see) if the road is clear,” said Eugénie’s son Manes Liautaud.
He said police told him his mother was wearing dark clothing and that it was rainy.
In the family’s opinion, however, that’s no excuse.
“Just because someone’s wearing dark clothes and it’s rainy or whatever, that just means the driver should be careful to look around,” Spolia said.
In a statement to Global News, Laval police said the collision was still under investigation but reiterated there did not seem to be an evident criminal matter.
“It is not automatic that there are charges pressed against drivers in cases of accident causing death,” wrote Erika Landry.
In the space of four days in early December, three pedestrians were killed in separate collisions in Laval.
Road safety experts say pedestrians, but drivers especially, need to be careful.
“If it’s darker outside … remember that pedestrians can be wearing black clothes and not be as visible,” said CAA-Québec spokesperson David Marcille.
He also said car manufacturers had a role to play in making cars safer by reducing blind spots caused by frames on front windshields.
Marcille noted that cities can also make streets safer for pedestrians by widening sidewalks at intersections, forcing cars to slow down.
The city of Laval said it analyzing the incident with investigators to see what changes, if any, are needed.
Though there is a crosswalk in front of a school, not far from where the collision occured, the Liautaud family would like to see another in front of the bus stop, where Eugénie was crossing.
The family plans to keep in touch with police about the investigation as they reflect on what could have been.
“We were just we were going to come for the holidays,” Alexandre said.
“And then my grandmother was going to come back with us to Vancouver to spend a few months, get out of the cold and and spend time with her with her great granddaughter.”
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