SQ officer killed in single-vehicle crash

Katia Hadouchi in her SQ uniform

Quebec police are in mourning after an officer died in the line of duty in a single-car accident near Joliette Wednesday evening.

SQ officer Katia Hadouchi, 23, was rushing to the scene of an emergency at 7 p.m. Wednesday when she lost control of her squad car on Kildare Row about 80 kilometres north of Montreal.

The car went off the road and smashed into two trees, destroying the vehicle.

Hadouchi was en route to pick up her partner after getting a 9-1-1 call concerning domestic abuse.

Paramedics rushed Hadouchi to hospital where doctors worked for hours but were not able to save her life.

Her colleagues are stunned by the death, and Thursday afternoon lowered the flag outside the Rawdon department to honour her death.

"Katia was a young woman that every time she came into the station she was always laughing and bright," said Benoit Richard. "She had a lot of fun with all of her colleagues. and everyone here is shattered by the fact she's gone."

Hadouchi had worked out of the Matawinie office for the past two years.

Investigators say no other vehicle was involved in the crash. The reason for losing control is not known.

A mechanic who came to the scene to collect the wreckage said he had never seen anything like it in 50 years. He said the car's engine was ripped out and thrown 25 metres from where the car stopped.

“The engine literally flew out of the car,” said mechanic Omer Gregoire. “We needed two tow trucks to haul away the wreckage.”

The tragic death is the second this year for the SQ in Rawdon. In April an off-duty police woman was driving on Highway 125 when a minivan driving in the wrong lane struck her vehicle head-on.

Officers from other nearby police forces took up the slack while Hadouchi's colleagues mourned her loss.