Mother, son killed in pileup on highway near Montreal: truck driver was playing cellphone game

Two people are dead and 10 others are injured after a multi-vehicle pile-up on the South Shore of Montreal. (Dave Touniou/CTV News)

An Ontario truck driver has admitted to playing an online game on his cellphone when he caused a pileup on a Montreal-area highway that killed a mother and her 11-year-old son.

On Wednesday, Baljeet Singh, 29, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm at the courthouse in Longueuil, on Montreal’s South Shore.

At the time of the collision on the night of July 19, 2022, Singh was playing the cellphone game while driving his 53-foot tractor-trailer on Highway 30 in Brossard, according to an agreed statement of facts presented in court. Traffic was coming to a crawl as he approached a work zone near Grande-Allée Boulevard, but he failed to slow down in time, causing the major collision.

The court document also reveals that he used his cellphone while driving 18 times in the hour before the crash.

One of the vehicles involved in the pileup was a Dodge Challenger driven by 42-year-old Nancy Lefrançois, who was driving her young son, Loïc Chevalier, and two other passengers. Lefrançois was pronounced dead at the scene, while her son was pronounced dead in hospital. The mother and son had both just celebrated their birthdays in the days before the deadly crash.

Her husband, Benoit Lavoie, suffered a collapsed lung, fractured ribs, a concussion, head trauma, and cuts to his scalp. He was in a coma for three weeks, causing him to miss his wife’s funeral.

The fourth passenger, a 16-year-old boy, suffered internal bleeding, a broken nose, injuries to his spine, and several lacerations. He was intubated for two days and needed plastic surgery to his head and face.

Several other people suffered serious injuries.

Driver flees to India

After being treated for shock in hospital, Singh was discharged at 4:45 a.m. on July 20, 2022, and then voluntarily met with investigators at the Sureté du Québec (SQ), telling them that he had no recollection of the collision.

Hours later that evening, he flew to India after buying his ticket at 3:37 p.m., according to the agreed statement of facts. Police were unable to reach him on his cellphone or on social media accounts, which he deleted.

A Canada-wide arrest warrant was issued on July 13, 2023. He was finally arrested in the United States on Aug. 21, 2025, and did not contest an extradition request by Canadian authorities.

The following month, he was arrested by the SQ and repatriated to Canada where he admitted a number of facts about the crash, including that he was playing Ludo, a strategy-based online board game, on his phone when the crash happened and that his eyes were not on the road.

He has admitted the pile-up was his fault and wants to be held accountable. “He expresses his regret to the victims, their loved ones, and his family,” according to the document. He has been detained since Sept. 11, 2025.

Repeated use of his phone while driving

Call logs from Singh’s cellphone showed that he was on a phone call with another man in the hour preceding the crash and that he often played online games with him.

A review of the truck’s dash camera showed that he committed more than 40 traffic violations during his last three trips and repeatedly used his cellphone while driving, weaved between lanes, and failed to take his mandatory rest periods, leading him to exceed the number of permitted driving hours.

A collision reconstructionist analyzed the scene and determined that Singh only reacted 0.35 seconds before the crash, which could have been avoided if he reacted in time by changing lanes. Several signs along the road would have alerted to the driver that something was wrong, including brake lights, yellow flashing lights, traffic cones on the side of the road, and the vehicles in front of him that were “rapidly” closing in.

“The driver should have been alerted by these signs and remained more vigilant so as to be ready to react. The video clearly shows the driver’s lack of reaction until the very end,” the agreed statement of facts stated.

Dangerous driving causing death carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Singh is scheduled to return to court in June for a sentencing hearing.