A lot, I would imagine. IANAL but I imagine she could countersue for lawyer fees, which can be awarded if the case has no merit. If there is evidence for the parent’s case.
I should note that from what I have read the parent’s case is being handled by Simon’s insurance, not her personal lawyer who is filing the case against the dead boy.
Is she actually doing that? I only saw the other boys and the county being named.
“Now the driver of the SUV - a former Innisfil resident - Sharlene Simon, 42, a mother of three, is suing the dead boy for the emotional trauma she says the crash has caused her. She’s also suing the two other boys, as well as the dead boy’s parents, and even his brother, who has since died. She’s also suing the County of Simcoe for failing to maintain the road.”
From Latest News - Breaking News Stories | Simcoe.com
It’s not the only site that says Devon Majewski is named in her suit.
Well, I totally stand corrected. Holy Shit!
…I’m not pretending you are rabid. You however are not able to objectively examine what happened here.
Took you long enough to acknowledge it.
You were the one who introduced trutherism here: I just took it and ran with it.
Can you be specific and what parts of the report “stink?”
Objectively: the mere presence of the husband at the scene means absolutely nothing. The wife was involved in an accident where someone died. I would fully expect the husband to make an appearance at some stage, wouldn’t you?
None of this stuff, on the face of it, stinks.
Allegedly false accusations absolutely matter. Especially if they are the basis of a lawsuit.
I’m pretty sure this lawsuit wouldn’t be going ahead if they hadn’t have been sued in the first place. You’ve got a lot of spare anger built up. Why don’t you throw it the way of the parents who launched the initial lawsuit? Do you think that lawsuit has any merit? And if you do what do you base it on?
You can keep saying that but it doesn’t make it true.
You brought up suspicions as being the equivelant of CTer. Don’t play this like you weren’t trying to make a condemning comparison
It barely mentions the precence of the husband, for starters. It happily seems to accept the drivers claim of driving 10kph above the speed limit, no explanation was given as to why witnesses were detained until 5:30 while the driver and husband were allowed to go home.
He was present before the police arrived. Apparently he was in the car following his wife. He did not attempt to render aid.
Got a cold? Stuffed up nose?
Which is why I pointed out that if the claims had no merit the case would be dismissed. Next time don’t chop that part out.
Your sure of that? The lawsuit names people who were not suing, abrother of the victim who died since, and is based around suing a child. A DEAD child, not the family of the child who is doing the lawsuit. The only reasoning the woman’s lawyer gives is some PTSD. If she were truly countersuing I could almost buy that, but she isn’t. She is suing a dead child.
How about you not speculate on my emotional state.
Again, not important. As I already mentioned before you deceptively snipped it out:
My opinions do not matter, but this woman’s actions have caused such ire I almost wonder if she is trying some perverted tactic at contaminated the entire jury pool of Canada.
Now since you use emotional baiting, shitty CT comparisons, and deceptive snipping I am putting you in the ignore file. Congrats on being the first, even Peter Morris didn’t manage to get in that file.
I haven’t seen the accident report - and I’m not sure if you have either, or if its even available on line - but if the report says
A police report says Simon was driving an estimated 90 km/h in an 80-km/h zone
On what basis are you disbelieving it? On what basis are you saying “happily seems to accept”?
Is it unusual for the driver to be sent home after the police have finished questioning her? Were the other witnesses “held”? What other witnesses were there?
I do note two things
So is there anything you have, other than a distrust for the police, that you can demonstrate why the investigation and report “stinks”?
Do also note that
It’s also not disputed that there were no lights on the bikes, and the cyclists were wearing dark clothes (although they were reflective)
What role did the husband play in the accident? Why would / should the report mention him more?
…I think that your words in this thread make your lack of objectivity clear.
But you are alleging a conspiracy, correct?
Why would the length of time witnesses were allegedly detained form part of an accident reconstruction report? Can you be clear: are you basing your comments on the accident report or the media coverage?
A witness alleges he didn’t attempt to render aid. But we all know how unreliable witness evidence can be.
Can you actually be specific about what you don’t believe?
If it isn’t relevant I’ll happily chop it out. The claims have already damaged their reputation in the local community and caused them to lawyer up. It doesn’t matter if the claim is later dismissed. The damage is already done.
No I’m not. Which is why I said “pretty sure” and not “absolutely sure.”
Yeah, but your not emotional over all of this.
I’ll let your words do that for you. Its a dead child for goodness sake!!!
Of course its important. I didn’t deceptively snip anything out. What I snipped was not relevant.
Do you think the intitial lawsuit had merit or not?
Are you proposing a conspiracy theory or is this just a really bad attempt at hyperbole?
Oh grow up. We are in the pit. All I’ve done is ask you a few questions. You can’t actually answer them so you’ve run away like a big baby. I’m flattered that I’m the worst person you’ve ever encountered here on the Straight Dope but to put me on ignore is flat out laughable.
If the law says Sharlene Simon is not at fault, by extension, any damages she can establish which are a direct result of the incident must be someone else’s fault. It’s an ugly and unintended consequence of raising the bar so very high before drivers are found culpable where injury or death is occasioned by motorists on to others.
Ergo, she is at liberty to pursue this controversial litigation. Not a high water mark for the western world’s court system however. Society has decided, throughout the entire western world, to place a very high threshold for convictions regarding motorists who kill other people. In my view, it’s probably because all of us know it could be any one of us in that same unfortunate circumstance, at any time of the day, any day of the week.
Full disclosure: I am very VERY pro cyclist, but I am committed to the rule of law even more so.
10kph sounds like a lie you tell to the cops to cover a bigger lie. No one will buy that you are travelling on or below the speed limit on a straight road but say you were going 10kph above it and no-one will look any closer.
THe woman who tried to give the boys CPR was kept until 5:30, while the Simon & husband were allowed to leave the scene.
Investigating themselves. Greeeat.
There is a long tradition of police automatically turning the blame on cyclists as much as possible.
I wish I could find the case where the police report and the media said that a cyclist riding at night didn’t have a blinkie, when the video showed the wrecked bike, with blinkie still blinking.
I’ve seen far too many reports by police that didn’t do what they claim to have done. There’s a case similar to this lawsuit in Spain where businessman named Delgado ran over a kid at dusk. Police happily accepted his claim of going 15kph over the speed limit and blamed the kid. Later the insurance company investigators found that:
None of these things were in the police report. But the court decided that both parties were liable since the boy wasn’t wearing a reflective coat and the driver was only doing 117mph.
Mr. Delgado then decided to sue the family for damage to his vehicle. That didn’t go so well.
FOrgot to add after the edit limit:
Now it may be that the police case is exactly what happened that night. The family’s lawsuit will bring any problems with the report to light. It could be the family’s case is entire made of bullshit. Im which case it will be dismissed before it goes anywhere. And it will be Simon’s insurance company that handles the case. Not her personal lawyer as is the case with her lawsuit against the family.
IA(almost)AL, and it’s nearly impossible to recover attorney’s fees in personal injury cases.
Well that is probably irrelevant either way since it seems that Simon’s insurance company is handling that case, not her personal lawyer who started this case.
Usually, if a plaintiff sues one person the defendant is free to point at some other person and tell the jury that they were really responsible. This is called an “empty chair” defense. Apparently the brother was part of the same group of bike riders, and if the lawyers for the kid’s estate say it was the brother’s fault and the jury agrees she has to start over.
Where are you getting that from? It would be highly unusual.
The rules for recovering costs in Canada are completely different (and much more generous) from in the US — don’t assume that you can’t recover.
Huh. I thought this happened in Massachusetts. I guess I got confused because people kept citing Mass. bicycle laws.
Not miskatronic, but for me personally
At 1 am, on the east bound lane, traffic will be moving at 100kph plus. The police stated that she had been driving at the speed that she told them, instead of skid pattern or any of the other accident information that the police gather after the accident, agrees with her statement.
Forensics would have had the road closed, once the ems folks had showed up to transport any injured to the hospital. Depending on where they are coming from, it might be a while for the forensics folks to show up. Except for her and her husband, and any of the victims that were transferred to the hospital, as for the remains of the diseased, I don’t know the mechanism for their disposition.
The other witnesses, would have been held up by giving statements and waiting for the okay from the scene commander.
On point one, I don’t know what any parent would have said differently. But on the second point.
What police agency did the overview of the investigation, normally this would be the OPP, our version of the state police.
It would help if they made that report public, as well as what the SOP for an incident of that nature is.
The evidence collected by the police, was not an out of the ballpark home run, but they did have enough to wake up a crown or consult the duty crown regarding the case.
What was the evidence or reasoning.
Neither the wife or the husbands cellphone records were subpoenaed, any phone activity would have been time stamped.
For me personally , what was he driving. I had heard at one point that he was driving a York regional cruiser, but no confirmation. As well, no mention of him getting called into his own detachment for his role, if nothing else, as a horrified witness.
Basically this situation looks a bit too chummy, compared to what an average accident involving strictly civillians would. The onus on the cops, is to provide clarity. I wont go as far as to think cover-up, but enough folks around here are wincing when this is mentioned.
Declan
The original article states, “17-year-old Brandon Majewski was cycling with two friends along Innisfil Beach Road in Alcona, Toronto, at around 1.30am on 28 October 2012 when he was struck from behind by an SUV and killed”.
There is no indication in that article the brother was part of the group of cyclists.
Are you certain he was? If so, where did you get that info from?
The articles I read stated the brother suffered emotional trauma over the death of his brother and his death was the result of that. I never saw anything that indicated the brother was part of the group of cyclists.
For anyone that’s interested in the actual road itself
West and eastbound views of the site, plus memorial
Declan
from here:
Its not terribly surprising. Why use your own lawyer when the insurance is the one handling liability issues and has their own lawyers.