86-year-old N.B. man crashes car, smashes window to escape drowning

A New Brunswick senior managed to climb out of his car after it crashed into a body of water.

There’s a certain sense of disbelief when Cindy Levesque tries to explain what happened to her father and how he managed to save himself.

“Describing it feels like I’m describing a movie scene,” she said.

Her father, 86-year-old Gerard LeBlanc, crashed his car into a body of water off Route 490 just north of Moncton, N.B., on Sunday afternoon.

It was snowing heavily at the time, and LeBlanc lost control of his Toyota Corolla and slid down a rocky embankment into a body of water.

“Instead of hitting the guard rail, he went on the right-hand side, and the ravine in the ditch was very, very deep,” said Cindy. “He couldn’t get the car doors or the windows open, so he had to climb into the back of the car to get access to the trunk.”

Cindy said her dad managed to grab a torque wrench, bust out the driver’s-side rear window and escape.

“When he got out of the car, he was in chest-deep water. Then he had to climb a very difficult incline. It had a lot of very big, sharp rocks full of slush, so he slid a lot. It took a while before he managed to get to the top,” she said.

Once he climbed up the rocks to the road, a passerby stopped to help.

“He was kind of stunned looking,” said Rob Saulnier. “I asked him if he needed help and he was soaking wet, so I threw him in my truck and turned the heater on and called his daughter.”

Saulnier isn’t sure how LeBlanc made it up the embankment.

“I don’t know how the heck he did it, but the good lord was with him for sure,” said Saulnier. “He could have drowned. That car was submerged three-quarters in the water. The trunk was the only thing sticking out.”

What makes the story even more incredible is that LeBlanc managed to do it all with a broken bone in his neck and a fractured bone in the bottom of his spine.

Cindy’s husband, Claude, went to the crash site afterwards with a friend to check it out.

“We had work boots on, and we had a hard time to get down there. It took us 15 to 20 minutes. I don’t know how he managed to crawl on his belly to get all of the way up to get help because it was cold and all the rocks were covered in snow,” he said.

LeBlanc is resting comfortably and recovering at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre.

Cindy said LeBlanc remembers everything vividly but is in a lot of pain and heavily medicated.

Her father was in good health before the crash, Levesque said, and is still working.

“At 86 years old, he walks every day. He’s quite a strong man, so I think that’s why, probably helped him escape and get the strength to climb up that big hill,” said Cindy.

Cindy and Claude both think the stretch of Route 490 just north of Ammon Road can be tricky to navigate and would like to see the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure expand the guardrail where Sunday’s crash occurred.

“It needs to be re-evaluated, I believe, so it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” said Cindy.

LeBlanc will likely be in hospital for another two to four weeks, but Cindy said he’s in good spirits.

“I feel like had he not been so quick to react, it could have a very different story. I could have gotten a very different phone call,” she added. “It’s a miracle that he got out in time.”

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