A 34-year-old driver pleaded guilty Tuesday to several charges in connection with two serious accidents that she caused while she was drunk at the wheel of her car. Worse still, the second collision occurred while his license had been suspended.
• Also read: Accident on Île d’Orléans: the driver did not have a valid license
The accident of October 29, 2023 caused a stir in the region due to the huge traffic jam that Camille Chalifour had caused at the entrance to Île-d’Orléans.
The woman, a resident of Hudson, in the Montreal region, admitted her guilt on Tuesday to charges of impaired driving causing injury and failing to stop after an accident for her dangerous behavior that day .
Guy Martel | Agence QMI
In the middle of the afternoon on a magnificent fall Saturday, Chalifour was traveling at high speed on Chemin Royal, in Saint-Pierre-de-l’Île-d’Orléans. After overtaking a first vehicle and weaving between the gravel of the shoulder and the center line, the driver made a double turn, on a red light, to take the Côte du Pont.
It was there, while attempting a second overtake, that she fell back too suddenly on the vehicle she was overtaking.
Two barrels
When the right rear wheel of his car hit the left front wheel of the SUV where four passengers were, the victims’ vehicle skidded.
“They rolled over twice before falling on all four wheels in the field next to the road. The airbags deployed,” explained the Crown prosecutor in the case, Me Camille Dubé.
Two of the passengers had to be taken to hospital by ambulance, but miraculously escaped with injuries that could have been much worse under the circumstances.
Camille Chalifour fled the scene on foot after the swerve. She was arrested by police when she returned to the scene of the collision, her eyes bloodshot and her breath smelling of alcohol.
Taken from Facebook Camille Chalifour
The police described the woman, who was agitated, as being “uncooperative, sometimes aggressive and sometimes affectionate with the officers”. She was initially charged with assault, but that charge was dropped Tuesday.
Blood tests detected a blood alcohol level of twice the legal limit in his blood.
License suspended
During this event, Camille Chalifour was driving without a license after being sanctioned for a first incident that occurred a few months earlier. However, she had not yet been formally charged criminally.
In April, the accused hit a car driving in front of her and slowing down to take an exit on Highway 40 in Portneuf. According to authorities, she was driving her white Volkswagen New Beetle at 120 km/h.
“The victims’ vehicle was badly damaged. It was sunk all the way to the rear seat,” explained Me Dubé, specifying that the two occupants had lost consciousness under the force of the impact.
When the police arrived, Chalifour made incoherent comments and his explanations were incompatible with the damage observed on site. It was also her second accident in a few moments since a woman met by the police said she had been hooked by the driver shortly before the collision on the highway.
Authorities calculated a level of 139 mg of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood in Camille Chalifour’s body that evening. The driver of the other car suffered a perforated bladder while his passenger suffered liver damage. Both were also diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury.
Next in April
The 34-year-old woman also pleaded guilty Tuesday to counts of impaired driving causing harm for this event.
His files will return before Judge Frank D’Amours next April for sentencing observations. A pre-sentence report will be prepared by this date to guide the court on the situation of Camille Chalifour, who is represented by Ms.e Carole-Anne Gagnon.
Do you have any information to share with us about this story?
Write to us at or call us directly at 1 800-63SCOOP.
