City ordered to pay paralyzed cyclist $868,000
Bike wheel caught in sewer grate on Ste. Croix
By CATHERINE SOLYOM, The Gazette September 15, 2011
The city of Montreal has been ordered to pay a cyclist more than $868,000 in damages after her front wheel got stuck in a sewer grate, sending her flying about 12 metres through the air. The cyclist, then a 59-year-old woman who worked with handicapped children, is now a paraplegic.
The Superior Court decision caps a four-year legal battle by Juliet Wilson Davies to force the city to pay for not keeping its roads safe and clear of "traps" - such as the one waiting for her as she headed home to Town of Mount Royal in May 2007.
Davies, a special-education teacher and a lifelong cyclist, had taken her bike out for the first time that year to get it tuned and have the handlebars replaced. Once the repairs were complete, wearing running shoes and a helmet, she took the same route home, heading south down Ste. Croix Ave.
She went under a viaduct near CEGEP St. Laurent and at the last minute saw three sewer grates in a row - each about three feet wide - together covering nine feet of the single southbound lane. She veered left toward the middle grate, which appeared to be the smoothest, then felt a "sudden jolt."
A witness testified he saw her do a full flip in the air before landing on her head. Davies found herself 12 metres from the viaduct, covered in blood and unable to move her legs.
"She was a very active, healthy woman and in the blink of an eye she was paralyzed from the sternum down, and confined to a wheelchair," said Stuart Kugler, Davies's lawyer.
Lawyers for the city argued the sewer grates, installed in 2002, were visible and safe, and Ste. Croix Ave. was neither a bike path nor a designated bike route.
The fault lay with Davies herself, who made a false manoeuvre, and acted imprudently by not taking the time to adapt to her newly modified bicycle.
Last January, Justice Catherine Mandeville decided to see for herself. Nothing had changed since the accident. Contrary to municipal standards, the spaces in the grate were wider than a bicycle wheel, and were angled at 45 degrees from the direction of traffic, not perpendicular as they should have been. The only explanation for Davies's accident, Mandeville ruled, was her wheel did in fact get caught as she veered slightly left.
Patricia Lowe, a spokesperson for the city, said she couldn't comment on the case. The city has 30 days to appeal the decision.
It isn't the first time the city of Montreal has been found responsible for a bike accident.
In April 2011, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld a decision ordering the city to pay a cyclist $199,000 when she hit a pothole on Roslyn St. in Westmount, was projected about the length of two cars, and fractured her shoulder upon landing. The hole was deemed to be a "trap" the city should have repaired.
Kugler said this last decision should give people confidence that if they do have an accident they have legal recourse.
"The city has the obligation to act prudently and diligently to ensure the safety of users whether they are on the road or the bicycle path or the skating rink."
Suzanne Lareau, the head of Vélo Québec, says cyclists have been getting their wheels caught in grates since the 1980s. They have to be perpendicular to traffic, she said, and underpasses should be better lit.
"It gives you the shivers - to see someone handicapped for life because of something so easy to change," Lareau said.
Major work on Ste. Croix is slated to begin soon, including the addition of a bike path.
The Superior Court decision caps a four-year legal battle by Juliet Wilson Davies to force the city to pay for not keeping its roads safe and clear of "traps" - such as the one waiting for her as she headed home to Town of Mount Royal in May 2007.
Davies, a special-education teacher and a lifelong cyclist, had taken her bike out for the first time that year to get it tuned and have the handlebars replaced. Once the repairs were complete, wearing running shoes and a helmet, she took the same route home, heading south down Ste. Croix Ave.
She went under a viaduct near CEGEP St. Laurent and at the last minute saw three sewer grates in a row - each about three feet wide - together covering nine feet of the single southbound lane. She veered left toward the middle grate, which appeared to be the smoothest, then felt a "sudden jolt."
A witness testified he saw her do a full flip in the air before landing on her head. Davies found herself 12 metres from the viaduct, covered in blood and unable to move her legs.
"She was a very active, healthy woman and in the blink of an eye she was paralyzed from the sternum down, and confined to a wheelchair," said Stuart Kugler, Davies's lawyer.
Lawyers for the city argued the sewer grates, installed in 2002, were visible and safe, and Ste. Croix Ave. was neither a bike path nor a designated bike route.
The fault lay with Davies herself, who made a false manoeuvre, and acted imprudently by not taking the time to adapt to her newly modified bicycle.
Last January, Justice Catherine Mandeville decided to see for herself. Nothing had changed since the accident. Contrary to municipal standards, the spaces in the grate were wider than a bicycle wheel, and were angled at 45 degrees from the direction of traffic, not perpendicular as they should have been. The only explanation for Davies's accident, Mandeville ruled, was her wheel did in fact get caught as she veered slightly left.
Patricia Lowe, a spokesperson for the city, said she couldn't comment on the case. The city has 30 days to appeal the decision.
It isn't the first time the city of Montreal has been found responsible for a bike accident.
In April 2011, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld a decision ordering the city to pay a cyclist $199,000 when she hit a pothole on Roslyn St. in Westmount, was projected about the length of two cars, and fractured her shoulder upon landing. The hole was deemed to be a "trap" the city should have repaired.
Kugler said this last decision should give people confidence that if they do have an accident they have legal recourse.
"The city has the obligation to act prudently and diligently to ensure the safety of users whether they are on the road or the bicycle path or the skating rink."
Suzanne Lareau, the head of Vélo Québec, says cyclists have been getting their wheels caught in grates since the 1980s. They have to be perpendicular to traffic, she said, and underpasses should be better lit.
"It gives you the shivers - to see someone handicapped for life because of something so easy to change," Lareau said.
Major work on Ste. Croix is slated to begin soon, including the addition of a bike path.
© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
Read more: montrealgazette.com/health/City+ordered+paralyzed+cyclist
Por isso(s) tudo é que sempre me vem a pergunta a cabeça: Canada é ou nao é pais de primeiro mundo em qualidade de vida?
Porque qualidade da/na vida inclui segurança, nao?
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