Quebec woman, 97, who loved driving and was in good health, dies in road accident

Madeleine Major also said coroner Yvon Garneau called to tell her that her aunt was in very good health and had no problems with her heart or lungs.

“She did not have a heart attack while driving her car, and when she overturned in the ditch, a vertebrae in her neck snapped,” Major said, adding the coroner told her she died instantly and did not suffer.

The small vehicle was equipped with OnStar, a General Motors emergency communications service.

“Mr. Garneau said OnStar (personnel) could hear that when she went into the ditch she was crying,” Major added.

A provincial police spokesman says the jaws of life had to be used to free the woman from her vehicle.

Excessive speeding did not appear to be a factor.

Major said her aunt was once stopped on a weekend by police who told her she wasn’t going fast enough.

Marcel Salvas, a longtime friend, described Blanche Major as “very polite, very helpful and very charming.”

“I’ve known her since I was 12,” he said, noting she had lived alone “for a long time” since her husband’s death.

He said Major never drove very fast and really had a passion for driving.

“She was out almost every day in her small car,” said Salvas, 71.

“She could see very clearly and had all her faculties. Often when she drove by, she would come into my yard, she would sit on my swing and we would talk.”

He drove by Major’s house Saturday morning and said it was hard for him to believe she was dead.

“I stopped my four-wheeler and stared at her house and told myself it’s not possible that she’s no longer there,” Salvas said.

‘But to get to 97, she had a good run.”

Major would have turned 98 in October.

Peter Rakobowchuk, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Quebec woman, 97, who loved driving and was in good health, dies in road accident

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