An RV driven by a 40-year-old man from Quebec went airborne, crashing onto a ferry which runs between the towns of Tadoussac and Baie-Sainte-Catherine.
On YouTube , the moment of the crash is captured as Éric Belec from Laval, Quebec speeds onto the ferry terminal ramp, landing on the departing ship’s deck as passengers scramble.
The Daily Mail reports that Belec was pulled from the wreckage of the motorhome, but died later at the hospital. A female passenger in Belec’s vehicle survived, but is in critical condition according to Canadian officials. The CCTV footage from Monday shows the exact moment when the RV takes flight, reportedly due to mechanical difficulties, and passengers on the ferry scurry as the motorhome lands on the deck of the ship leaving Tadoussac.
A witness on the ferry confirmed that amazingly, no passengers on the ferry were injured. A video camera mounted on the stern of the ferry typically captures the 10-minute trip from Tadoussac to Baie-Sainte-Catherine, but in this incident, it shows the ferry moving through the water, approximately 30 feet from the end of the dock ramp when the white motorhome speeds down the tarmac without slowing down. Ferry passengers seem to spot the RV and run for cover.
Dukes of Hazzard style… LIKE WTF? https://t.co/8BTjB4jTpr
— D’ Soca Junkie (@DSocaJunkie) June 27, 2019
CBC, which spoke to passengers who were on the deck of the ferry, reports that observers didn’t think it was really happening, because it looked like a chase scene from a film.
Cindy Desbiens, who was on the ferry with her two children and saw the crash happen from the top level, was able to take photos of the aftermath, and expressed shock.
“It was like being in a movie. It [seemed] impossible that something like this would happen.”
Witness Claire Gagné stated, “There was a lot of panic. A lot of people almost got hit.”
Tadoussac’s mayor, Charles Breton, explains that the driver of the motorhome was honking his horn in an effort to get the attention of those on the ferry, and swerved the vehicle toward the metal railings to slow the camper down. Breton added that luckily, there were no children watching from the back of the stern as they often do in order to watch the ferry depart.
“If [the ferry] had taken off two seconds before, or two seconds later, the outcome could have been entirely different. All the elements are there for a catastrophic scenario.”
Highway 138 ends in a deep slope which leads to the ferry dock, and the mayor says that reworking this road needs to be a priority.
