A 25-year-old Canadian woman was found guilty Friday on two counts of criminal negligence for stopping her car on a busy highway to rescue some ducklings, and causing a crash that killed a motorcyclist and his teenage daughter four years ago, Fox News reported.
Emma Czornobaj, a financial analyst from Quebec, had pulled over her car in the left lane of a provincial highway in Candiac, south of Montreal, upon spotting a group of ducklings on the median, CTV News reported. She had stepped out of her car to try and herd the ducks into the vehicle.
In those few moments, 50-year-old Andre Roy's Harley-Davidson chopper, with 16-year-old daughter Jessie riding in the passenger seat, had slammed into the rear of Czornobaj's Honda Civic on June 27, 2010, killing them both instantly. His wife, Pauline Volikakis, who was riding separately, was left injured after her Yamaha motorcycle also slammed into Czornobaj's car.
Czornobaj was ruled by a Montreal jury to face a maximum sentence of life in prison for two counts of criminal negligence causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing death, leaving defense attorney Marc Labelle to express shock at the verdict. In the absence of other contributing factors, he questioned how Czornobaj could be found guilty of criminal negligence.
"This was not a race. This was not a person who took a chance and drove drunk," Labelle told the Montreal Gazette after the verdict. "This is not about someone who was speeding and took a risky maneuver."
However, prosecutors challenged Czornobaj's decision of stopping her car in the middle of a traffic lane, claiming it showed lack of clear judgment. Testifying in her own defense, Czornobaj said if the same thing were to happen today "I would not have stopped."
Volikakis sided with Labelle and said she did not blame Czornobaj for the accident. "My feelings are that it's time that we go on," she said Friday, according to CTV. "I have no expectations but I don't wish any ill will to anyone."
