A coroner from Quebec has reiterated the need for the province’s Transport Ministry to enhance Highway 50 following a head-on collision that occurred towards the end of last year. Coroner Martine Lachance, in a recently published report, concluded that the death of a 71-year-old man from Boisbriand was accidental but attributed it to the highway’s lack of physical separation between opposing lanes.
The incident took place in the late afternoon of December 26, 2025, close to Brownsburg-Chatham in the western Laurentians. The victim was a passenger in a vehicle traveling west on Highway 50, also known as Autoroute Guy-Lafleur.
Reportedly, the driver was speeding at 111 km/h in a 100 km/h zone when she was momentarily blinded by the headlights of an approaching truck. This caused her to veer off, hitting the right-side guardrail before crossing into the eastbound lane, where the vehicle was struck on the passenger side by a van. Weather and road conditions were ruled out as factors contributing to the crash, as investigations revealed dry pavement, sufficient visibility, and no mechanical issues with the vehicle.
The absence of a central median or guardrail to prevent vehicles from crossing into oncoming traffic was highlighted by the coroner. Earlier this year, two other coroners also emphasized the hazards of Highway 50’s continuous road layout, connecting it to nine other fatalities from collisions.
While upgrades have been implemented on certain portions of the highway, Lachance urged immediate action from the province to enhance safety by installing median guardrails to separate traffic in both directions. Additionally, she stressed the importance of expediting planned widening projects to transform the road into four lanes, emphasizing that these measures are crucial in averting further severe injuries and deaths on the highway.