Jason Orr didn’t know what hit him. He was driving to work downtown for the late afternoon shift on Oct. 22 and had nothing in the way of a warning.
“I was driving along and all of the sudden, my windshield just shatters. Can’t see anything, glass everywhere, my rear view mirror went flying past my face, into the backseat.”
He slammed on the brakes, got out, bloodied and dazed, and asked the woman across the intersection at 109 Street and 100 Avenue what happened. She told him a light pole fell over and smashed over him. She caught the video of it with her dashcam, waiting to turn left.
Orr shared the video with 630 CHED and Global News.
“On my phone, if you can zoom into it, you can see the light after it struck my car, almost hit a lady walking on the sidewalk. She had to get out of the way.”
“I’m actually lucky that I’m still here.
“Not being able to see through your windshield going 60 km/h, if that intersection was red I could have t-boned somebody. If I had swerved at all, I would have strayed into oncoming traffic.
Watch below: Questions are being raised after a light pole came crashing down on 109 Street near 100 Avenue in Edmonton. Vinesh Pratap reports.
Orr is also thankful he was wearing sunglasses or his injuries could have been much worse. Shards of glass were pulled from his bare forearms. He said he was wearing a sweater with the sleeves pushed up.
Orr’s hope is public awareness will spur the city to take responsibility. He’s convinced the city’s rusted-out bases and poles are at fault. Waiting for the tow truck that afternoon he looked around and saw several in that condition. He’s noticed that quickly after his terrifying encounter, EPCOR replaced a lot of poles along 109 Street.
A city audit in 2007 detailed the problem. Councillors Mike Nickel and Bryan Anderson took up the charge again in 2015 with students hired to take inventory.
Scroll down to read the full City of Edmonton light pole audit.
In March 2012, Global News reported another driver’s experience having a streetlight pole fall on her car along 50 Street. Donna Batiuk’s car was written off but insurance only paid out $1,400. After months of waiting, the City of Edmonton denied her damage claim.
“Things are pretty much at a standstill,” Orr said. “I just got my Jeep back. The Jeep was in the shop for over two months, awaiting for parts and getting fixed.
“Roughly $12,700 in damage to my Jeep. I had to pay my deductible for my insurance.
“I had to pay for my rental because it took so long to fix the Jeep, so that was all out-of-pocket costs for me because the city doesn’t seem to think that any of this their fault.”
Orr has spoken to a couple of lawyers, including one who’s willing to take on the case, but has warned of big dollar signs.
“He just thinks that it’s going to be a pricey thing to do and unfortunately I don’t have the money to pay for a lawyer to chase the city. The city is going to win at those types of costs. I feel like they’re purposely dragging it out, that I’ll just let it go.”
EPCOR is the city’s contractor for streetlight pole maintenance and carries out work based on the priorities and direction set by the city. However, the company wouldn’t comment on this situation.
“As the contractor, we have been instructed by our client, the city, that they wish to be the spokesman regarding streetlight issues,” Tim LeRiche said.
The city didn’t provide any details about the incident. However, Janice Schroeder from city operations said the standard process is for someone involved in an incident to complete and submit a claim form and provide as much information as possible.
“Then we assign a claims adjuster, investigate the incident and information provided, gather as much additional information as possible, and consider the claim against the liability defences in the law,” Schroeder said.
Edmonton Street Light Poles – powder coating investigation by Anonymous TdomnV9OD4 on Scribd
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