Driver charged with impaired, dangerous operation months after Lanark County collision that killed child

An Ottawa resident is facing charges following a fatal collision that took the life of a child in December 2025.

The collision happened on Highway 7, between Drummond School Road and Drummond Concession 7, on Saturday, December 13, 2025, just before 4:30 p.m. An OPP officer was on patrol in a marked cruiser when it was struck by an oncoming pick-up truck.

There were three people in the pick-up truck, one of whom was a child who suffered life-threatening injuries; the child was transported to a regional trauma centre by Air Ornge but was tragically declared deceased the following day.

The two other people in the truck were treated for serious injuries.

The investigation was conducted by the Lanark County OPP with assistance from a Collision Reconstructionist and Technical Collision Investigators from the OPP Traffic Incident Management Enforcement (TIME) team.

As a result of the investigation, the driver of the pick-up truck, Matthew Bigras, 40, of Ottawa has been charged with:

·        Dangerous operation causing bodily harm

·        Dangerous operation causing death

·        Impaired operation causing bodily harm

·        Impaired operation causing death

Charges have not been proven in court.

The accused was released from custody and is scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Perth on Monday, August 24, 2026.

OPP Media Relations Officer Bill Dickson told Lanarkist in December that the Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, will not be involved in this incident despite it involving a police cruiser. “We notified them, they reviewed details and did not invoke,” he stated at the time.

When asked about the delay between the collision and charges being laid, PC Corey Noonan with Lanark OPP told Lanarkist that “the final report of the collision investigators usually takes months to complete as they are a small unit covering all of Ontario. Also, any biological samples being tested by the Centre of Forensic Sciences takes some time to complete.”

Anyone with information or potentially relevant dashcam video, who has not yet spoken with officers, should call the Lanark County Detachment at 1-888-310-1122 and refer to incident E251673466.