The family of a Moncton man who was struck and killed by a train in 2016 has filed legal action with hopes that no other family will experience what they’ve gone through.
Diane Harel alleges her son Steven’s wheelchair was stuck in the tracks, resulting in the fatal incident. Now they’re seeking damages in a civil lawsuit filed in a Moncton court.
“We can't just keep crying every day. We have to keep going. We have to live,” Harel says. “We're not going to stop until someone does something. Then we'll be happy."
A statement of claim states Steven Harel was unable to free his wheelchair from the tracks in the early hours of July 27th, 2016, waiting an “excruciatingly long time” before the train collided with him.
“It wasn't Stephen Harel's fault that he was ploughed through by a train,” says the family’s lawyer, Brian Murphy. “He was in a wheelchair which was approved and was going across a crossing which should have been safe, and he got stuck.”
The Harel family is suing CN Rail, the City of Moncton, a wheelchair manufacturer and a medical equipment provider for unspecified damages, citing alleged negligence and improper wheelchair design and instruction.
Murphy is questioning the design of the railway crossing.
“The road bed, the design, the angles, a lot of this has to be hashed out in the evidence and the transportation safety board report, which is coming out imminently,” he says.
CN Rail declined to answer specific questions. In a statement to CTV News, a company spokesperson said: "This incident was a terrible tragedy and it remains the subject of a [Transportation Safety Board] investigation and pending litigation."
The City of Moncton declined any comment, while the other defendants did not return CTV News’s calls by air time.
Court documents show CN Rail plans to fight the allegations.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Cami Kepke.
