Deadly weekend on Quebec roads leaves five people dead, several injured

Five people were killed over the weekend on Quebec roads and several others were injured, according to reports.

On Friday, a motorcyclist in her 20s died after losing control while trying to pass another vehicle on Highway 55 northbound at kilometre 68 in Saint-François-Xavier-de-Brompton, just after 4 p.m. No other vehicles were involved. The highway was closed and reopened around 8:30 p.m., said Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Béatrice Dorsainville. That same evening, a woman was fatally struck while crossing outside a designated crosswalk on Fournier Boulevard near Bériault Street in Gatineau.

On Saturday, a head-on collision in Mirabel, in the Laurentians, killed a 43-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman. The car veered out of its lane on Rang Saint-Dominique near Highway 15 and struck the oncoming vehicle. The source describes the other vehicle as both a pickup truck and a van.

Shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday on Bécancour Boulevard in Centre-du-Québec, a young driver crashed into a tree and the car burst into flames. The fire spread to an unoccupied building next door. The driver died of burns inside the vehicle. SQ Sgt. Louis-Philippe Ruel said the driver had not been formally identified but "appears to be a young man from the area."

Saturday afternoon, a motorcyclist was seriously injured on Chemin des Hauteurs in Saint-Hippolyte after losing control, striking a guardrail and ending up in a ditch. The rider was taken to hospital in reportedly stable condition. In Saint-Michel, a 15-year-old boy fell from a moving vehicle he had been clinging to while car surfing; he was taken to hospital in critical condition and his condition later stabilized.

Investigations are underway into the causes of the crashes that the source does not explain.