Quebec boy survives three hours trapped in snowbank home

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Quebec boy survives three hours trapped in snowbank


OTTAWA — A Quebec boy buried by a snowplow while playing outside during a snow day on Monday was asleep throughout much of the three hours he spent awaiting rescue, he said Wednesday.

Olivier Prescott, 7, was outside the elementary school across the street from his home in the Montreal-area city of Longueuil when a snowplow clearing the schoolyard drove by. The driver didn’t notice the boy playing, and the plow’s blade buried him in a metre of snow.

“After the truck went by I was under the snow,” said the boy. “I was scared.”

Olivier’s mother, Stephanie Prescott, was also outside shovelling snow in the wake of a storm that buried much of Montreal and closed area schools. Stephanie said she didn’t see what happened to her son, but a neighbour told her he thought Olivier had been buried by the plow.

After a hasty search of the area turned up no sign of her son, the mother called police.

Prescott said she never feared her son had run off.

“I know my son wouldn’t leave the park, so I didn’t think about that,” she said. “I told the cops, ‘He’s in the park, or someone took him, because I know my son.’ ”

Neighbours and police launched a frantic search for the boy, knocking on doors in the area. A neighbour who claimed he knew where Olivier might have been buried began shovelling, and eventually located the trapped boy.

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Olivier was pulled from the snowbank three hours after he was buried, and for the first 10 minutes his mother indicated he was “all white, and parts of him were blue.”

The boy was taken to hospital, where the concerned mother said that it took little time for her son to recover.

“After about 20 minutes at the hospital he was fine. He said to me, ‘Mommy, I’m hungry. Can I have some fries and 7-up?’ He’s not allowed to eat fast food, but I said, ‘Sure.’ ”

The seven-year old was discharged from hospital later that evening.


Olivier said that throughout the ordeal he could hear people looking for him, but was unable to get their attention. The boy also spent much of the time unaware of what was happening.

“I was sleeping,” he said.

Olivier was feeling better and wanted to return to school on Wednesday, but his mother opted to keep him at home for the day.

Longueuil police told the Journal de Montreal newspaper that the driver of the plow was questioned on Tuesday, and that their investigation is continuing.

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A Quebec boy buried by a snowplow while playing outside during a snow day on Monday was asleep throughout much of the three hours he spent awaiting rescue, he said Wednesday.