One man is dead and a woman is in critical condition after construction equipment crashed into a sightseeing gondola at the popular Mont-Tremblant resort, according to provincial police.
A 911 call came in shortly after 11:30 a.m. after the construction machinery operated by a third party struck the panoramic gondola, causing the two people on board to be ejected and then fall several metres to the ground at the site, around 130 kilometres northwest of Montreal.
Eric Cadotte, a spokesperson with the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), said Sunday afternoon that a male occupant died of his injuries in hospital.
The second occupant, a woman, is still "very critically injured" and was in life-threatening condition after being sent to a hospital in Montreal, he said.
Both victims are not from the Mont-Tremblant area. No other information about their identities was released.
SQ officers with the force's major crimes unit were called to the scene, which is standard protocol, to try to determine the causes and circumstances of the crash.
Camille Savoie, another SQ spokesperson, told CTV News that Quebec's workplace safety board, the CNESST, is collaborating with police in their investigation.
Investigators are exploring all possible hypotheses for the accident, one of them being criminal negligence causing death, Savoie said. The investigation is ongoing.
The Tremblant Resort Association said in a post on Facebook just after 3 p.m. that its blues music festival and other activities were cancelled for the rest of the day "out of respect for those involved."
Annique Aird, a spokesperson for the resort, said this is the first time there has been a gondola crash on the mountain.
"It was a major accident. We're expressing all our sorrows to the families. And right now we're working very closely with the Sûreté du Québec," said Aird in an interview.
Guests who were on other gondolas were evacuated without incident. The gondolas will be closed "until further notice," the spokesperson said.
Quebec Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx reacted to the incident on Twitter, calling it a "sad accident."
"All the authorities are on site to shed light on the matter, and we are monitoring the situation closely," the minister wrote.
