House arrest for reckless driver
A man who burned a red, crashed into a car containing two eighty‑year‑old people while driving the wrong way on an Outremont street at 73 km/h in a 40 km/h zone, while holding no driver’s licence, has been sentenced to serve a year at home and not drive for a whole year! How could the judge be so heartless?
Tim S. 11:29 on 2025-06-23 Permalink
I don’t know how to wrap my head around the absurdity of someone without a licence being sentenced to not drive.
Also, at 30 years old his young age was considered a reason for clemency. if you’re too old, of course, that’s also a reason to be spared the rigours of jail. What’s the unfortunate age range for drivers to actually be held responsible for their actions?
Nicholas 11:42 on 2025-06-23 Permalink
I’m curious if the organization was investigated. My previous employer asked for a copy of everyone’s driver’s licences and checked their validity with SAAQ. There’s a reason these organizations exist, but they’re not first responders, and I’d also be investigating training procedures so people are trained how to drive legally.
DeWolf 12:00 on 2025-06-23 Permalink
Sometimes I see drivers doing things so mind-bogglingly stupid, I wonder how they got a licence in the first place. And increasingly it’s clear that they probably just don’t have a licence at all.
(One example: a 30-something woman who seemed utterly confused by the concept of a red light and kept trying to go through the intersection, stopping twice when cars on the green slammed on their brakes and honked. Another example: a young guy in a beat-up hatchback driving fast down Drolet the wrong way, two of his wheels *on the sidewalk*, in order to bypass a construction detour.)
Blork 17:20 on 2025-06-23 Permalink
I’m just going to toss this out there, and it shouldn’t be seen as a defence of this individual or his actions.
I think intention plays a role in how incidents like this are perceived in court and how the sentences are determined. On the one hand you might have some irresponsible idiot driving like a maniac without a license because he hates authority and he doesn’t give AF about anybody else, and when something like this happens his only regret is that he got caught.
On the other hand you have a someone like this guy, who thought he was doing the right thing and was — in his mind — a hero going to save someone. The fact that he comes from a pretty insular community that tends to see itself as a bit apart from the mainstream means the incidentals of his driver’s license not being valid probably didn’t mean much to him. (What does that even mean? Did he simply neglect to renew it, in which case it’s a minor issue unlike if it had been taken away because of drunk driving for example.)
The fact that he wasn’t a cop or any sort of emergency response worker, and presumably had no training along those lines, also might have meant little to him because of his place in the insular community, where no one bothered to tell him that it doesn’t work like that.
And finally, it seems that he is deeply remorseful for what happened, which matters a lot if it’s sincere. I expect his self-appointed bubble of being the John McClane of Hutchison Street has been severely and permanently burst.
Does that mean it was OK to do what he did? Not at all! But it’s not the same as if he did it out of active disrespect and delinquency and was inclined to do it again.
Fortunately no one was killed (that would have been a whole other matter). But that doesn’t mean the chaos and injuries were not real and not significant. For all we know there is a second level of punishment and restitution also taking place within the community. Bottom line is that he is (probably) very unlikely to do anything like that again.
Tim S. 18:18 on 2025-06-23 Permalink
Fine Blork, but does this send a message that the next person shouldn’t do it either? I don’t really get that vibe, though of course I’m only going by the article. The justice system cannot simply be about rehabilitating the individual, it’s about enforcing the social contract that most of us abide by and that we trust to keep us safe. In driving especially, this has to be THE basis for punishments.
Ian 19:40 on 2025-06-23 Permalink
I find it weird that they don’t say what capacity the “patrouilleur” was operating under… the Chaverim, for instance, are all licensed & certified as emergency responders, and have a good relationship with the SPVM. The Chavivim might help you get unstuck from a snowbank, but it’s usually younger guys. 30 is not that young in a community where people get married at 19. I mean, I get it, “community patroller” says enough for most people, but there are whole categories involved here that it’s just confusing to leave out. It also seems weird to me that he didn’t have a license, yet had access to a vehicle. Why? Almost all adult men in the community drive, there’s more to this than is being said.
Blork 22:27 on 2025-06-23 Permalink
Ian, the article doesn’t say he doesn’t have a license. It says he doesn’t have a VALID license. It could be (and probably is) as simple as he didn’t renew it. Maybe he forgot, maybe he didn’t think he needed to.
MarcG 07:13 on 2025-06-24 Permalink
Free niche movie idea: Bumbling Hasidic wannabe superhero community member keeps trying to do good and fucking up, causing harm and annoying the police.
Uatu 07:50 on 2025-06-24 Permalink
Don’t give Adam Sandler more movie ideas lol
Ian 10:32 on 2025-06-25 Permalink
Not entirely unlike the premise of the old TV show Car 54 Where Are You
… but Hassidic