Quebec provincial police have released their final accident report for the province’s annual, two-week construction holiday — and the numbers are grim. 

The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) says 22 people died in vehicle crashes during this period — the deadliest in more than a decade. 

Last year, 13 people were killed over the two weeks.

“It’s awful, it’s tragic, to think that [22] families are in mourning when they thought they were on vacation, having fun,” said Paul Leduc, the former chief of traffic safety services for the SQ. 

The construction holiday is traditionally a period with a lot of travel — and road fatalities. It falls during a broader period when road death rates are usually higher from St-Jean-Baptiste Day on June 24 to Labour Day on Sept. 5. 

A spokesperson for Quebec’s auto insurance agency says many of these crashes are caused by human behaviour. 

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