Police remind drivers to leave animals on highways after duck incident

Police are urging Ottawa drivers not to remove animals from busy highways after a person was spotted trying to remove a family of ducks from Highway 417.

Ontario Provincial Police said they received 911 calls at 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday that a pedestrian was spotted trying to remove a family of ducks from the Ottawa highway near the Carling Avenue overpass.

Police never found the ducks or the pedestrian when they responded, but they still want to remind drivers about the rules of the road.

Motorists who see an animal on the highway should not stop in the lane of traffic to help, say the OPP. Instead, they should call 911 if the hazard is an emergency and pull over to a safe location and stay in the vehicle.

Montreal woman convicted after fatal crash 

The warning comes after Emma Czornobaj of Montreal was sentenced to 90 days in jail last December for causing two deaths after stopping on the highway to rescue ducklings. Czornobaj stopped her car in the left-hand lane of a provincial highway in Candiac, south of Montreal.

A motorcycle driven by 50-year-old André Roy then rammed into her car. Both Roy and his 16-year-old daughter, Jessie, died in the collision. 

Czornobaj ​was convicted of two counts of criminal negligence causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing death, but is appealing the decision.

The OPP wants anyone who has information about the Ottawa incident to call the Ottawa detachment at 613-270-9171.