Sad Nobility

Highway travel inspires people to drive too quickly. And to leave too little room between them and the vehicle ahead. It's a simple fact of peoples' attention to where they want to go, not how they're negotiating the getting-there. People drive too fast, and take little heed all too often of the need to maintain a reasonable distance.

And you might think that people driving motorcycles would be even more aware of this kind of danger, but too many simply do not give any evidence that they do.

That being said, tragedies occur, with or without human fault involved, although usually there is some attribution to someone involved, of inattention at the best, neglect at the worst. There is a high price to pay in highway accident injuries and all too often, mortal injuries leading directly to death.

When that happens it is a horribly dreadful thing, and to mete out judgement respecting responsibility is also difficult.

So when a woman, involved in a highway traffic accident which has caused the tragic deaths of her husband and her daughter, pleads leniency for the driver of the vehicle which was in part or whole responsible for her loss, this represents an act of bereaved nobility.

"She saw them die, both of them. that's enough of a punishment for a young woman of only 20 years old. You can punish her until she is 60 years old, but it won't bring my family back. She's been through enough." Pauline Volikakis.

Mrs. Volikakis was driving a motorcycle on Highway 30 near Candiac on Montreal's South Shore. Also driving his own motorcycle was her husband, Andre Roy, and with him their daughter, 16-year-0ld Jessie. The driver of the vehicle in front of them stopped suddenly, because she noted a family of ducks crossing the road.

Both motorcycles crashed into the suddenly-stopped car.

Mrs. Volikakis cradled her daughter in her arms, and believes that her child died on impact. She briefly saw a flicker of life in her husband's eyes as he passed into death. There is nothing that can console such grief. "I was trying to comfort Jessie, but there was nothing I could do. I couldn't help her", she said. "Andre opened one eye, but that was all."

This will be her memory for life.

Having witnessed the young driver's reaction to what she saw as the outcome of her reflexive action to avoid harming a family of ducks, by becoming the agent of death for two people, she has no wish to prolong the misery and agony for that young woman, four years older than her own child.

Mrs. Volikakis was also mindful of the generosity of a handful of strangers who stopped to try to help. "They were there from the very moment it happened until the very end. Certainly, it was very unsettling for them to witness."

What an enormously warm and humane spirit.