[EN IMAGES] Concrete blocks thrown at moving cars on a Quebec highway

Motorists fear for their lives as concrete stones thrown from the flyover fall straight on the windshield while traveling at high speed.

“It was actually attempted murder, I could have been there! The [premiers secours] He told me it was played only a few centimeters away,” said Maxime Lemieux, still in shock hours after the events.

The 32-year-old was going for a ride to his friend at around 3.30 last night when the tragedy happened. He was on the Félix-Leclerc highway, via Avenue Royal, when a concrete block with a diameter of 25 cm passed his windshield.

• Listen to the Other Facts section with Maxime Deland broadcast every day at 11:55 am :

“It was like an explosion in the glass, it was really traumatic. The paramedic made me the sign of the cross and said I was blessed”, says the man who had his new car for 24 hours.

Deliberate gesture

If at first it was believed that the pieces of the viaduct of the Avenue Royal were not loosened, at the end of the investigation by the police force of Quebec City (SPVQ), people deliberately threw these concrete blocks.

“Witnesses told us they saw the suspects. We discovered that the fragments came from a broken pavement on the viaduct,” explains SPVQ spokesperson Marie-Pierre Rivard.

At least two moving vehicles were targeted by these criminals and their windows were broken. One of the drivers also had to be evaluated after a projectile hit him while passing through the window of his truck.

“My cell phone was completely destroyed, but I wasn’t hurt. The police told me that if I had a passenger, he wouldn’t be here today,” Mr. Lemieux said.

Many wrongdoings

Thirty minutes after the incident, two youths, aged 14 and 15, were reported strolling on private land in the same area, at the intersection of rue d’Ariel and rue des Virelais.

A little further south, at Armand and Saint-Exupery streets, calls came in to report that a dozen cars had their tires punctured by a blade.

If they are arrested for trespassing at night, the youths are suspected of involvement in all these nighttime vandalism incidents in the neighborhood and along Avenue Royal.

The investigation into the case is continuing to confirm the connection between all these stories, however, the SPVQ underscored.