Toronto e-bike rider fights for access to accident benefits

Globalnews.ca
Sept. 8, 2023
Catherine McDonald

A 39-year-old Toronto model and actor, who has struggled to make ends meet financially since coming to Canada from Jordan six years ago, is now also struggling physically after being involved in an accident on her e-bike which has left her unable to access medical and wage benefits.

Amani, who is asking Global News to use only her first name for privacy reasons, told Global News that on Aug. 14 around 8:30 p.m., she was travelling northbound in the Yonge Street bike lane approaching Roxborough Street.

She was finishing her shift as an Uber Eats driver, something she had only been doing for about two weeks, when she swerved to avoid a Tesla that began turning left into her path.

“I just saw the car coming towards me, very fast. It was evening so the lights were very strong on my face. I was scared so I tried to avoid him and fell,” Amani explained.

She said she fell off the bike and woke up to see bystanders standing around her and remembered hearing the driver say, “I didn’t hit her.”

Amani said she was taken to hospital where she learned she had broken her collarbone and needed to undergo surgery. Unable to work and unable to use her right arm, Amani asked Toronto police for a motor vehicle collision report to access insurance benefits, but she was denied.

Lawyer David Shellnutt said despite the fact investigators confirmed in an email to Amani that the motorist, who was driving southbound on Yonge Street, turned left across northbound motor vehicle lanes, stopping just before the bike lane, and that the rider reacted to the anticipated turning maneuver, causing her to crash, they would not provide his client with a collision report nor necessary insurance information on the driver to allow Amani to access medical supports and lost wages.

“She’s been left to languish on her own. Toronto police could have easily avoided this,” Shellnutt told Global News.

Shellnutt said that Amani sustained a serious injury requiring surgery, and according to the Highway Traffic Act, as a victim of a motor vehicle collision, Amani is entitled to no-fault accident benefits that provide at-home rehabilitation supports and lost wages she desperately needs post-surgery.

Shellnut said Ontario courts and those across the country have confirmed that there need not be direct contact for a motor vehicle accident to occur.

“Toronto police have a duty to cyclists and all road users, especially vulnerable road users and that is to make a horrible situation -- being involved in a motor vehicle collision -- as easy as possible. It’s their duty to serve and protect us and we just felt in this instance, they abdicated that duty,” Shellnutt said.

“They were presented with clear evidence, and with arguments and case law and statutes and decided, ‘We’re not going to help this person out,’ and that bothers me.”

In an email to Global News, Const. Sean Shapiro of Toronto police writes that, “Police attended and investigated this particular event and determined that the e-Bike rider fell as a result of their own action and not as a result of the movement of a motor vehicle. This event was NOT classified a collision and there was no obligation to provide information to the cyclist regarding the motor vehicle, it’s driver or their insurance.”

The motorist remained at the scene. He was not charged.

Shellnut said that in a desperate attempt to get benefits for his client, he turned to the provincial insurer which comes from the taxpayer’s purse.

“It provides the same benefits, the same supports but it’s a payer of last resort and you’re only supposed to go there in hit-and-run situations where the person has fled and you don’t have your own auto insurance. You’re not supposed to go to the government for support where there’s another automobile involved with insurance,” Shellnutt said.

“So, what has happened is police have downloaded the responsibility of this collision from a private insurer to the citizens of Ontario.”

Shellnut explained Amani is still waiting for compensation for her lost wages and has not received support for a personal support worker. Amani explained it could be months before she works again but is grateful for the support of Good Samaritans who came to her side that night to help.