The Montreal
Gazette - September
20, 1997
INSURANCE LAW UNDER FIRE
VICTIMS SHOULD BE ABLE TO SUE NEGLIGENT DRIVER: POLL
(Rita Legault-Special to The Gazette)
Sherbrooke-
Two weeks before his second birthday, Clifford Fisher wandered
out of his sandbox and was crushed by a Hydro-Quebec pickup
truck as it backed out of his family's 30 foot driveway.
Three months
later, the family of the Eastern Townships toddler, public
safety officials and lawyers specializing in traffic-victims'
rights are hoping the tragedy will lead to changes in Quebec's
no-fault-insurance law.
They also want the government to make defensive-driving
courses mandatory for truck and utility -truck drivers-
especially those who must go on private property.
The fatal
accident occurred on June 26 as the Hydro-Quebec driver
was leaving after reading the Fishers' meter. Lyne Morin
Fisher spent more than a half-hour trying to revive Clifford
as her older children Kurt, 10, and Courtney, 7, looked
on in horror.
The truck-driver did not know CPR and did not have a first-aid
kit in his vehicle.
Since that day, Bill and Lyne Fisher and other family members
have been dealing with their grief by working to prevent
similar accidents.
"I don't know how I'd live with myself if someone else's
child was backed over," said Bill, who has been too
busy drumming up support for the cause to return to work
since the accident.
"We just can't
leave this, " he said. "For Clifford, we can't leave it".
Fisher broke
down as he described how he and his wife sat crying on a
bench outside Place ville Marie in Montreal after learning
they had no legal recourse against the driver or utility
company that took their son's life.