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.