Quebec woman's fiance died after a collision with a pothole -- now she plans to sue the province

A woman whose fiancé died in a motorcycle crash and who nearly died herself is blaming the collision on the poor condition of Route 117, and said she plans to sue Quebec’s transport ministry as a result.

On May 1, Johanne Lortie was driving on the highway with her fiancé Martin Labelle to get to Sainte-Adele.

The car in front of them suddenly swerved to avoid a pot hole and struck the pair on the motorcycle.

Lortie said after she was ejected from the vehicle she fell from an overpass and landed onto Highway 15 below. Labelle did not survive.

"Martin suffered multiple traumatic injuries at the time of impact and died," she said.

Lortie blames the province’s Ministry of Transport for failing to maintain the road surface and said she spoke about that with a police investigator and a Quebec coroner.

"They both confirmed that if the road had been in good condition, this never would have happened," she said.

Some local mayors in the region are also upset about the condition of Route 117 and are now offering to repair highways that are under provincial jurisdiction.

"We in the different municipalities are equipped to do that if they accept to give us the budget," Sainte-Adele Mayor Michele Lalonde told CTV News, adding they "learned that there were only two teams of workers to do 900 kilometres, which is unbelievable."

Lortie is still recovering from her injuries in a seniors' residence, unable to walk without support, and is still trying to cope with the death of her fiancé. She doesn’t want him to be forgotten.

She plans to the sue the government and said she doesn’t know how she’s "still standing."