38 deaths reported on Quebec roads during construction holiday, the worst in 10 years: SQ

The last two weeks on the roads were the worst in the last 10 years in terms of collisions and deaths, according to the latest numbers.

The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) reported 38 fatalities occurred in 31 collisions that took place during the construction holiday this year, from July 18 to Aug. 3.

Last year, SQ reported a total of 17 deaths throughout the same time period.  

“Behind every death or every person that is seriously injured, there’s multiple people that are impacted,” Lt. Joyce Kemp of SQ’s Transport Safety Division told CityNews. “That’s what we want to avoid.” 

Kemp said that more than half of all fatal collisions that took place within the two-week holiday only involved a single vehicle, leading SQ officers to conclude that human error and risky driving likely played a major role in this year’s death toll.

The majority of crashes have been linked to distracted driving, non-compliance with speed limits, ability to drive impaired by drugs, alcohol or a combination of the two, as well as not wearing seatbelts, according to the SQ report released Monday.

“When there’s a human factor, there’s a human decision that the driver took,” Kemp said. “So we know that these collisions are avoidable.”

This year’s report also shows that 14 collisions over the past two weeks involved motorcyclists — nearly half of all the deadly crashes.

Halfway through the construction holidays, the SQ felt the need to turn to social media to warn the public, since 17 deaths had already occurred in road accidents.

Two days later, the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) made a public statement in turn, reporting a “worrying” number of road deaths.

Last weekend alone, fatal accidents occurred in Saint-Moïse, in Bas-Saint-Laurent, in Cowansville, in Estrie, in Notre-Dame-de-Montauban, in Mauricie, in Saint-Luc-de-Bellechasse, in Chaudière-Appalaches, and in Kazabazua, in Outaouais, among others.

The spike in fatalities comes after the SQ vowed last month that it would increase patrols during the holiday to prevent fatal collisions.

The SQ said in a press release published Monday that “these deaths and collisions occurred despite numerous police operations being carried out across the country, including on waterways and off-road.”

According to Kemp, officers issued thousands of fines to drivers not respecting road safety regulations.

But despite this, she said the toll could rise even more in the coming weeks, especially since Quebecers seem to be staying in the province for vacation, which explains the increased number of cars on the roads.

“Even though the construction holiday is over, summertime is not,” Kemp said. “There will be other people on vacation in the next coming days and weeks, and so I remind people to really adapt their driving.”

In 2025, five collisions and seven deaths occurred within the tourism network compared to four collisions and four deaths from last year.

Over the weekend, four other fatal accidents were added to the toll, including Saturday night’s accident in Saint-Luc-de-Bellechasse, near Quebec City, that caused the death of a man and three children under the age of 10.

For reasons that are still unclear, the vehicle carrying the four people collided with a tree in the late evening.

This year’s statistics contrast sharply with the numbers compiled by the Sûreté du Québec for the same period in previous years.

In 2022, Quebec saw a total of 13 deaths on the road during construction holiday. In 2023, that number increased to 24, but decreased to 18 in 2024.

According to Quebec’s automobile insurance board, there are an average of 17 deaths, 78 people seriously injured and 1,358 people slightly injured.

The construction holiday in Quebec is the busiest travel periods of the year with an estimated one-third of Quebecers are on vacation during this period, across all types of jobs.

Experts like André Durocher, Director of road safety community relations at CAA-Quebec, warn that warm weather and road collisions often go hand-in-hand. Many people pack their time off with back-to-back activities, he said, and when fatigue sets in, distractions can become deadly.

“We know what happens at the end of the day. They’re tired. They could lose their attention. And there we have it, we have a sad death,” he said.

But while police can issue tickets and raise road safety awareness, Durocher said safe driving ultimately comes down to the person behind the wheel. 

“You can’t put a cop behind every single human being,” Durocher said.

—With files from The Canadian Press