A man who lives with permanent after-effects left by frostbite after leaving the road with his vehicle in 2018 must be compensated by the SAAQ, ruled a judge of the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec (TAQ).
What there is to know
• A resident of Shawinigan has just been recognized as the victim of a motor vehicle operation even though his injuries occurred when he had left the vehicle.
• This decision of the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec (TAQ) could set a precedent, according to lawyer Marc Bellemare.
Marco Hamelin was returning from a Christmas dinner on the evening of December 8, 2018 at the wheel of his vehicle when he left the road on a highway in Shawinigan. The weather conditions were icy at the time, there was black ice and wind-blown snow on the road.
“I wasn’t dressed warmly, I was just going from the restaurant to my house,” Mr. Hamelin said in an interview.
The man knew the area well and attempted to seek help on foot by walking towards a secondary road. He quickly got stuck in waist-deep snow, lost his shoes and had no coat. Suffering from hypothermia, he decided to return to his vehicle, but ended up collapsing unconscious on the side of the highway.
“I thought it was over,” he said. I was starting to die at the extremities. »
He was eventually rescued by other motorists and woke up the next day in a hospital bed.
Victim of serious frostbite to his hands and feet, Mr. Hamelin spent three months in hospital after his accident. He had to have two toes amputated, in addition to having skin grafts on his hands and two months of rehabilitation.
“Even today, I have pain in my hands and feet. I am medicated. I have less balance too. »
“Anxiety is on board”
During his convalescence, Mr. Hamelin made a request for compensation from the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), but received a negative response.
“I no longer had any source of income. And there I learned that I was left to my own devices. The anxiety is on board. It was lucky that I had close family to support me,” recalls Mr. Hamelin.
The SAAQ determined that the injuries suffered by Mr. Hamelin occurred after he left the vehicle, and therefore that it was a separate event, not covered by the motorist compensation plan.
For Marc Bellemare, former Minister of Justice, lawyer specializing in the field of road accidents and victims of criminal acts, and who represented Marco Hamelin before the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec (TAQ), this interpretation did not hold up. .
PHOTO ERICK LABBÉ, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVES
Me Marc Bellemare
Without the use of the vehicle, there would have been no damage.
Me Marc Bellemare, lawyer for Marco Hamelin
“Quebec is huge, we have 60,000 km of roads,” he says. If you get stuck at the corner of Sherbrooke and De Lorimier, you can basically walk to the hospital. But on a remote highway, in the middle of the night, in the middle of winter, and you have to get home, that’s a different story. »
Me Bellemare notes that his client admitted to drinking alcohol in moderation that evening, but adds that this information is not relevant to the case. “We have a system of liability without regard to fault. We compensate bandits and assassins, the system makes no distinction, so we can compensate someone who was returning home after a dinner,” he says.
New assessment
In her decision rendered on December 6, Judge Natalie Lejeune of the TAQ wrote that “the circumstances recounted by Mr. show that he found himself walking in the snow and getting frostbite because he traveled by car. to get home. The car was no longer moving and, regardless of whether Mr. voluntarily got out of the vehicle, he had the use of his car to be on the side of the road. Hypothermia therefore materialized in the general context of automobile use.”
Judge Lejeune agreed with Mr. Hamelin and asked the SAAQ to carry out a “new evaluation following this conclusion”.
This decision could set a precedent, notes Me Bellemare. “There are people who don’t know that these accidents can happen. And often, people give up after an initial refusal from the SAAQ. The accident victim can go for review, and it is negative in 90% of cases. Next is the TAQ. It’s an obstacle course. I often see people who regret giving up years ago. »
Sophie Roy, public relations officer for the SAAQ, notes: “The Administrative Tribunal of Quebec, in the context of the facts submitted, considered that the applicant had demonstrated the causal link between the accident and his condition. For its part, the Company is currently analyzing the decision and, considering the deadlines for requesting a review, it will not issue any comments at this stage. »