A 71-year-old Montreal woman who slipped on an icy sidewalk was left with multiple fractures and had to pay six months of physiotherapy to regain her mobility.
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Montreal Regional Public Health Department
“My foot did a 360. I broke my ankle, tibia and fibula,” recalls Marilou Fournier, who was walking in the Pointe-aux-Trembles neighborhood at the end of November 2020 with her husband.
She remembers there was no abrasive on the street or sidewalk. “No salt, no sand, nothing […] It was sneaky, a little crazy snow that camouflaged the ice,” said the retired nurse.
The accident had serious consequences for her. In addition to waiting for the ambulance for a little over an hour, lying on the sidewalk, she also had to be hospitalized in the middle of a pandemic.
Even today, she still has after-effects, despite several months of physiotherapy, which she paid for out of her own pocket. “I was very disciplined, but it’s certain that it will never be the same as it was,” she sighs.
“Indecent”
Mme Fournier deplores the “lamentable” state of sidewalks in Montreal. “In front of my house, it’s almost impassable. There are so many cracks, holes,” she denounces, not counting the pitfalls that often stand in her way when she travels on foot, such as scattered and poorly collected garbage.
“With all the taxes we pay, I find it indecent that we cannot have less cracked sidewalks. I’m not demanding, just less cracked,” she says.
She adds that she has not taken steps to file a claim with the City, preferring to “choose her battles” to concentrate on her recovery.