Police identify hit-and-run driver in Cantley crash that killed 17-year-old girl

Police attend the scene in Cantley, Quebec, where a 17-year-old girl was struck and killed by a vehicle along Highway 307 on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014. (MRC des Collines)

MRC des Collines have identified the second driver involved in Tuesday's fatal hit and run crash in Cantley.

Police released that information on twitter Wednesday morning.

The 17-year-old girl was struck before dawn, not once, but twice, as she tried to catch a city bus to college. Police say she was struck by the driver of a pick-up truck who immediately stopped. She was then hit by another vehicle. That driver took off. It happened in Cantley, north of Gatineau, along Highway 307 and Rue Cardinal around 6:30 this morning.   Police closed Highway 307 for several hours this morning while they pieced together the last few moments of the young woman's life.

At 6:30 a.m., the road was packed with rush hour traffic, moving along at more than 70 kilometres an hour.  Police say the 17-year-old was trying to cross the highway to wait for a city bus to take her to CEGEP.

‘It was 6:30, it was dark,” says Constable Martin Fournel with the MRC des Collines de l’Outaouais, “She was dressed in dark clothes and it was a pick-up truck heading north. It wasn't able to avoid the young girl and she got hit.’

Fournel says the driver of the pick-up truck stopped immediately.  Moments later, witnesses say the girl was struck a second time by a car going the other way.  That car briefly stopped, then took off.

A couple of off-duty police officers were on their way to work when they came across the scene of the crash.  They rushed over to see if they could help but the teen was unconscious by then. She was transported to Gatineau Hospital and then to CHEO where she was pronounced dead a couple of hours later.

‘Oh my God, that’s terrible,’ says Nicole Longpre, who was walking her dogs early this morning and saw several people gathered on the highway.  She noticed someone prone on the road but had no idea what had occurred.  Longre says the corner of 307 and Cardinal has become a hazard for residents walking or driving.

‘It would be nice if they would put lights or a stop or something,’ she says, ‘because there's nothing at the corner and no one can see the road and it's so dark that it's dangerous.’

‘They are supposed to put a light,’ says resident Yves Saumure, ‘because there's going to be a shopping centre just across.  Next year they're going to put the light. It was supposed to be this fall but the way it's going it won't happen, it will be next year.’

Police say there have been very few fatal accidents along this strip.  But residents say one is one too many.