Quebec tractor driver charged after deadly crash

Three children killed, seven injured when tossed from tractor

NOTRE-DAME-DE-STANBRIDGE, QUE. — A 38-year-old Quebec man was charged with criminal negligence Thursday after three young children were killed and seven people were injured when they were thrown from the front loader of a tractor.

Six children and four adults were riding in the loader of the tractor Wednesday evening when the accident occurred on a country road in the small town of Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge, about 55 kilometres southeast of Montreal.

The three victims were aged five and under, and three other children suffered serious injuries, but their lives were not believed to be in danger.

Provincial police said, among the four adults who were in the loader, two were in hospital in critical condition while the other two escaped with minor injuries.

The driver of the tractor, who cannot be identified under a court order, appeared in a Granby, Que., courtroom Thursday afternoon and was formally charged with criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Luc Perreault, who lives nearby, said he heard police sirens racing through the village just after 7 p.m. and rushed to the end of the road to see what was happening.

“I heard a police car coming into the village full speed with sirens on, and then an ambulance and another police and another police,” he said in an interview. He said he saw a parade of ambulances arrive at the scene.

While he said he didn’t know the family, Perreault added he believed the event was likely a family celebration.

“A Canada Day that just turned terrible,” he said.

Perreault said it’s rare but not unheard of for people to ride in the loader of a tractor. “We used to do that when we were kids, you know, with Grandpa’s old tractor sometimes, get in the bucket,” he said. “But not to that magnitude, so many people.”

Daniel Tetreault, the town’s mayor, said the entire community was saddened by the accident, which he said involved a local farming family.

“They’re a good family, good people,” he said.

PAUL CHIASSON, THE CANADIAN PRESS A police car drives along le Rang Sainte-Anne in Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge, Que., where three children aged five and under died after a tractor accident Wednesday night.