Montreal's notorious car culture had an early start

The tragic story took place the evening of August 11, 1906. The automobile in question was driven by Hernold Thomas Atkinson, a chauffeur with the Dominion Park Company. Quebec law at the time decreed a maximum speed of six miles an hour (10 kph) within cities, towns, and villages. When approaching intersections, ‘machines’ were expected to reduce further their speed to an astonishing (at least by today’s standards) four miles an hour (6.4 kph). Nonetheless, when a newspaper reporter of the day installed himself for about an hour at an intersection on Dorchester Street, he counted a total of 17 vehicles passing in front of him at an average velocity of 15 miles an hour (25 kph).

By all accounts, Atkinson was also travelling considerably faster than the legal stipulation. Regardless, then, as now, not all provincial road regulations were attentively enforced by the municipal authorities. It also seems that the accident occurred as Atkinson overtook an immobilized tramway which had come to a halt to take on passengers. However, ordinances from the period prescribed that drivers wait until that process was completed before continuing. In a sense, the street car was like a stopped school bus — not to be passed under any circumstances.

Instead, Atkinson pulled ahead on the left of the trolley, striking Toutant outright as he stepped unknowingly in front of the offending vehicle. Mrs. Toutant’s dress was torn by the automobile as she nimbly saved herself by stepping quickly onto the sidewalk on the north side of Ste. Catherine Street. Her husband, however, was declared dead 20 minutes later at Notre Dame Hospital.

Needless to say, Montrealers were particularly horrified by the event, perhaps especially because the victim’s body was very badly mangled in the incident. Moreover, many in the general public were still not totally comfortable with these new ‘machines’ which were suddenly and stealthily prowling the streets of the city.

Not surprisingly, Toutant’s death became the subject of much controversy. Even the Automobile Club (the forerunner to the CAA) weighed in with their opinion that the speed directives, although unwarrantedly strict, had to be obeyed by all drivers. In fact, all regulations as they applied to automobiles had to be observed, they argued.

That same evening, Atkinson was charged with manslaughter, and exactly a month after the accident he was sentenced to six months in prison for his part in this Montreal first.

There exists an interesting irony to this whole unhappy affair. it was on the very same day of Toutant’s death that Pope Pius X promulgated St. Christopher to be the patron saint of automobile drivers throughout the world.

But then again, it wasn’t Atkinson who was killed! • Robert N. Wilkins is a researcher and writer with the Quebec Family History Society, an anglophone genealogical association based in Pointe Claire. He can be reached at montreal_1900@hotmail.com and his "BLOG" is found at www.forgoodmeasure.tk