Two Nunavik women die in fatal car incident

Two Kuujjuaq women died June 3 when the vehicle they were in went off the road outside the Nunavik community. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

(Updated at 4 p.m.)

Two Kuujjuaq women died June 3 when the vehicle they were passengers in rolled off the road and into a ditch outside the Nunavik community.

A man was arrested in connection with the incident.

Alain Thurber, 62, who works for the Kativik Regional Government in Kuujjuaq, faces two charges of impaired driving causing death.

Under the Criminal Code, this is an indictable offence and, if found guilty, carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

As confirmed by a court clerk in Amos, where he had a first court appearance by telephone from Kuujjuaq June 5, Thurber also faces a charge of operating a vehicle while impaired, “having consumed alcohol in such a quantity that the concentration in the person’s blood exceeds eighty milligrams of alcohol in one hundred millilitres of blood.”

Thurber is scheduled to appear in person in court later this week, the court clerk said June 6.

The driver of a Jeep Cherokee was on Kuujjuaq’s Marina Road June 3 at about 7:30 p.m. when he allegedly lost control of the vehicle, which rolled into a ditch.

In the process, the two women passengers, aged 68 and 47, were ejected from the vehicle and killed, said the Sûreté du Quebec provincial police, which is investigating the incident.

Police did not identify the names of the women June 5 or that of the driver, prior to Thurber’s first court appearance, although they said all three were related.