Montreal

Quebec woman who stopped for ducks, causing fatal crash, loses appeal

A Quebec woman who stopped to help ducks along a highway and was found guilty of triggering an accident that claimed two lives has lost her appeal.

Emma Czornobaj was found guilty in 2014 of 2 counts of criminal negligence, dangerous driving causing death

Emma Czornobaj was sentenced to 90 days in jail, to be served on weekends, after being found guilty of causing a fatal crash that killed two people. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

A Quebec woman who stopped to help ducks along a highway and was found guilty of triggering an accident that claimed two lives has lost her appeal.

The Quebec Court of Appeal said today it has rejected Emma Czornobaj's challenge of the verdict and sentence.

Czornobaj was sentenced in December 2014 to 90 days in jail to be served on weekends, three years' probation and 240 hours of community service, as well as receiving a 10-year driving ban.

In June 2010, the woman had stopped her car in the left-hand lane of a provincial highway in Candiac, south of Montreal, to help the ducks cross the road. That's when a motorcycle carrying Andre Roy and his teenage daughter Jessie slammed into her idling vehicle, killing both.

A jury convicted her in 2014 of two counts of criminal negligence causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing death.

She appealed in early 2015, putting her sentence on hold.