I was at home and browsing the news online last Friday evening, which isn’t a shock considering the job title on my business card, as well as the current state of the world that we find ourselves in at the moment.
I eventually came across a link to a Global News article related to the horribly tragic bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team back in April 2018.
By the way, it’ll already have been two years since the crash on Monday. Two years already, wow.
It turns out that one of the surviving players of the crash, Ryan Straschnitzki of Airdrie, Alberta, has filed a $13.5-million lawsuit against those that he accuses of being responsible for the incident.
Ryan was left paralyzed from the chest down, one of the 13 who managed to leave the scene alive while the crash killed 16 other people.
The lawsuit names the driver of the truck that hit the bus, Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, as well as the companies that owned both vehicles involved as defendants — Charlie's Charters Ltd. and Calgary-based Adesh Deol Trucking Ltd. — and the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
However, the biggest point of contention in regards to this lawsuit that is making the rounds online is the fact that it also names Glen Doerksen, the driver of the team bus who also died in the collision. The suit claims that Doerksen was speeding at the time of the accident and knew he was approaching an intersection where several fatal collisions had happened in the past.
“The one that we’re getting a bit of criticism for is suing the estate of Glen Doerksen because he’s dead, right. The question is how fast was that guy going?” Ryan’s lawyer, Richard Edwards, posed when speaking to The Canadian Press last week.
“I’m not saying Mr. Doerksen takes most of the blame, but… there’s a bigger story here than just someone blowing through the stop sign.”
Hmmm, this one may be hard to judge, folks. On the one hand, none of us are in this young man’s shoes. He had his dream of playing hockey taken away from him, he finds himself living life in a chair, and suffers a number of ailments as a result of that crash two years ago that he’s dealing with to this day.
On the other hand, I can’t say that I agree with including the deceased bus driver in this lawsuit, or more accurately, the family of Glen Doerksen. Just as Ryan is learning to cope with life in a wheelchair, Glen’s family is left to grieve and ask questions that will probably never have any satisfying answers.
For what it’s worth, in a message sent to media outlet Discover Airdrie, Ryan's mother Michelle Straschnitzki says the family feels terrible about how the lawsuit may look to others, but it’s out of their hands due to how the Canadian legal system is set up.
"The way the Canadian system is set up, all responsible parties have to be named in order to do tort law. We are not, by any means, looking to hurt anyone, nor bankrupt Glen’s family. It is just a necessary step in the process of ensuring Ryan will be taken care of, once Tom and I are no longer here. We feel terrible about it, but it is out of our control. We are far from greedy. And, the nasty comments, we can handle, but, as a parent, I draw a firm line in the sand at the death threats Ryan has received."
I personally find the dollar amount in this lawsuit a little intriguing. No one knows what the future may hold, but the total number of $13.5 million seems to suggest that Ryan will never work again and that this money will basically pay for necessities, rehab, treatments and everything else that comes with living the rest of his life.
Well, to clarify, it’ll be $13.5 million on top of the $425,000 that was distributed to each survivor as a result of the amazing Go Fund Me crowdfunding campaign, as well as a previous interim payment of $50,000.
It’s understandable that Ryan feels cheated out of his dreams and the rest of his life resembles a question mark right now, but I find it intriguing that he’s the only surviving player to come out of the crash who has filed a lawsuit. Granted, that may change in the coming days for all we know right now, but Ryan isn’t the only young man whose life was changed forever in an instant. We’ve seen other survivors make great strides in trying to turn the page on that terrifying chapter in Canadian history.
Like I said, this one may be too hard to judge. I can see both sides of the coin, but I just worry that this lawsuit may rip open too many old wounds, thereby preventing any true healing from that life-changing crash.
For this week, that’s been the Ruttle Report.
