Quebec coroner recommends increased protection measures pedestrian safety after death due to hit-and-run seven-year-old Ukrainian refugee in 2022.
Coroner Eric Lepine said in a recent report that the girl's death was an accident caused by the driver's failure to come to a complete stop at the intersection, as well as the blinding morning sun.
“My analysis of the facts leads me to the conclusion that the driver never saw (the victim) and that (the victim) never saw the vehicle,” Lepine wrote. “The collision occurred due to a lack of alertness on the part of the driver due to his vehicle not coming to a complete stop, coupled with poor visibility due to the glare of the sun.”
However, he called on the city and province to take steps to improve intersection safety, including adding solar glare as a criterion to consider when deciding what measures to take.
Seven-year-old Maria Legenkovskaya was walking to school with her brother and sister on December 13, 2022, when she was fatally struck by a Jeep Grand Cherokee. The driver drove away without stopping but turned himself in to police later that day.
He pleaded guilty in 2024 to failing to stop after an accident and was later sentenced to a year of house arrest.
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Maria and her family moved to Montreal in 2022 to escape the Russian invasion of their country. Her father, Andrey Legenkovskaya, was fighting with the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces when she was killed and came to Montreal from the front line to bury his daughter.
Lépine's Nov. 12 report redacted the victim's name but noted that her death affected all of Quebec, prompting calls for better protection of children on city streets.
The report notes that the driver slowed down and looked both ways at the intersection where he hit the girl, but did not stop. The driver did not see the girl, but felt a bump under the tires, the report said. A few hours later he surrendered to the police.
The coroner noted that physical modifications such as bollards, speed bumps and curb extensions are the best way to improve pedestrian safety at intersections and advised the city to continue adding them wherever possible.
Lepine also noted that sunlight at the intersection appears to be a factor that is particularly blinding during the winter months. Several witnesses, including police officers, told the coroner they were “completely blinded” by the sun on the street where the accident occurred.
Lepine noted that the intersection was not considered dangerous at the time of the accident, but the situation might have been different if sun-related visibility had been on the list of criteria officials use to evaluate the need for additional safety measures, such as installing crossing guards.
The coroner also noted that the driver was directed by GPS to drive through a densely populated area (a route he had never driven before) due to traffic jams caused by the closure of two lanes of the main tunnel leading to the South Bank. He suggested the province announced construction work less than three months in advance, giving officials little time to plan mitigation measures to manage traffic flow.
He suggested the province announce its plans sooner rather than later, and also work with companies that own GPS-related apps to avoid too much traffic through residential streets.
He also asked the province to add sun glare to the list of criteria to consider when assessing whether guards should be posted at an intersection.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
