Laval police are asking the province’s automobile insurance board to evaluate whether an 81-year-old woman is fit to drive after she rammed her car into a daycare centre, injuring a three-year-old girl.
The elderly woman’s Ford Focus smashed through two walls of the Garderie Educative Bilingue Face à Face Tuesday afternoon, near where the children play.
Two girls were pinned under the car; one only suffered minor injuries, while the other is in serious, but stable condition at Sainte-Justine Hospital.
WATCH: Daycare owner describes her first-hand account of pulling the little girl out from under the car and how strangers helped to save the child
Police questioned the driver, who they say remembers only part of what happened.
Police have determined that after she hit a cement block, she planned to hit the brakes, but mistakenly hit the gas.
The Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec, the province’s automobile insurance company, will now be asked to re-evaluate her driving.
“If the SAAQ decides that her driving abilities are not up to par, they can suspend her permit,” explained Laval police Const. Franco Di Genova.
It does not appear that the driver will face criminal charges.
Meanwhile, because the daycare is closed, the children were taken to other daycares in the area.
By and large, they don't appear traumatized, said Maria Trimarco, manager of the Apprendre et Apprecie daycare, a nearby daycare where many of the children are attending.
“We told them they were going to go visit another daycare for a kind of a field trip and they were excited because they were seeing other children,” she said.
The Face à Face daycare remains closed until the repairs are completed.
The owner Christina Strigas is considering installing cement barriers in front.
