Posted on 04/25/2014 2:01:28 PM PDT by rickmichaels
ALCONA - Still in the throes of agony from losing their son in a vehicle crash, the parents of young Brandon Majewski are now reeling after they learned the woman who struck and killed him is suing their dead child.
“I feel like someone kicked me in the stomach – I’m over the edge,” the dead boy’s father Derek Majewski said.
As he sits in his immaculate Alcona home sifting through piles of photographs of his son, the heartache shows on his face and he can hardly contain his tears as he speaks.
Just down the road, on the side of a quiet country stretch of Innisfil Beach Rd., is a memorial complete with a bicycle, flowers and photographs of his son Brandon.
The spunky, handsome, 17-year-old bike enthusiast was out with his two buddies on Oct. 28, 2012 when they hopped on their bicycles to go for hotdogs on a drizzly, dark night around 1:30 a.m.
Brandon was struck dead-on by an SUV and killed while his friend Richard McLean, 16, was seriously injured with broken bones and pelvis. His other pal Jake Roberts, 16, was hit but sustained only scratches.
Now the driver of the SUV, Sharlene Simon, a mother of three, is suing the dead boy for the emotional trauma it has caused her. She’s also suing the two other boys, as well as the dead boy’s parents, and even his brother, who has since died. She’s also suing the County of Simcoe for failing to maintain the road.
Even the family’s lawyer is in shock.
“In all of my years as a lawyer, I have never seen anyone ever sue a child that they killed,” Barrie lawyer Brian Cameron said. “It’s beyond the pale.”
In fact, he couldn’t even call the family to tell them the news this week.
“I just couldn’t bring myself to tell them on the phone.”
After a face-to-face meeting Tuesday, the parents and stepparents left his office almost staggering in disbelief.
“I’m devastated, I’m in shock,” said Brandon's mother, Venetta Mlynczyk, a dental assistant who is drowning in sorrow. “She killed my child and now she wants to profit from it? She says she’s in pain? Tell her to look inside my head and she will see pain, she will see panic, she will see nightmares.”
“It blows my mind,” Brandon’s stepmom, Lisa Tessier, said. “We are all devastated. This is so cruel.”
In a statement of claim filed with the courts, Simon is claiming $1.35-million in damages due to her psychological suffering, including depression, anxiety, irritability and post traumatic stress. She blames the boys for negligence.
“They did not apply their brakes properly,” the claim states. “They were incompetent bicyclists."
Simon's lawyer yet to return a call from the Toronto Sun.
Brandon’s father shakes his head.
“They’re kids!” he gasps. “And they have a right to make mistakes ... it was a wet, dark road – what about slowing down?”
He insists the reflectors on the bikes would have been visible.
A South Simcoe Police report shows Simon was driving at an estimated 90 km/h in an 80-km zone.
The report also states: “no breathalyzer was performed” – a point the lawyer intends to delve deeper into, he says.
Her husband, Jules Simon, a York Regional Police officer, was driving behind his wife that night, but little is mentioned about him as a witness in the police report. He pulled over when Brandon was struck, and shortly after both were allowed to go home. It was another witness who pulled over to tend to Brandon and called 911.
Two hours later, after Brandon lay dead in hospital from multiple traumatic injuries, police knocked on the door of his home.
The dogs began to bark. It was late.
“I knew,” says his father, and his voice breaks again. “I had a gut feeling.”
Therapy, medication, even booze, doesn’t dull the pain.
And then, six months after the funeral, he awoke to find his second son Devon, 23, who had just graduated as a paralegal, laying in his bed, blue and dead, after popping too many pills and drinking too many shots. Not an intended suicide, they are certain – he was just trying to stifle his grief.
“This has ripped our family apart,” says Majewski. “And now this woman has the gall to try to profit from our dead child she killed? Profit from another boy who was almost crippled?”
He flips again through the family photographs. Happy times of fishing, dirt biking, swimming, eating birthday cake, laughing. He chuckles for a moment when he remembers all the bikes his son rebuilt – sometimes he would sneak the parts right into his bedroom, and shine them till they gleamed. All another world away.
“This thing haunts us,” he says. “It will never stop haunting us.”
Cameron has launched a routine lawsuit against the driver, mainly for medical and funeral costs on behalf of the boys and their families. He alleges Simon was speeding and may have been intoxicated and talking on her cell phone.
“Sharlene Simon failed to take reasonable care to avoid a collision which she saw or should have seen was likely to occur,” his claim states. “She operated the motor vehicle while she was intoxicated.”
None of the allegations have been tested in court.
Brandon Majewski
Some people think the "stop" sign panel on a school bus means "please, if it's no inconvenience."
The woman was driving 10 kilometers/hour over the speed limit on a rainy, misty night when she should have been driving 10 kilometers per hour under the speed limit.
As you note, the father said the bike had reflectors on the pedals and the seat. That's all any driver should need by way of warning, even in the middle of a foggy, rainy night.
Labour Party??!! I think you might mean Liberal Party. At least here, the Libs call themselves what they are, not Democrats,
I remember what happened to Mark Styen up in Canada. It may be even more whacked.
As a responsible dad I'd not let my boy out there at past 11pm at night.
” The woman was driving 10 kilometers/hour over the speed limit on a rainy, misty night when she should have been driving 10 kilometers per hour under the speed limit.”
Oh my! 5 mph above the speed limit! Crucify her! On a rainy night, looking outside beats looking at the speedometer, and the road was straight (in a picture provided by another article).
“As you note, the father said the bike had reflectors on the pedals and the seat. That’s all any driver should need by way of warning, even in the middle of a foggy, rainy night.”
REALLY? On a road where the speed limit is 50 mph, and there is mist or rain, you think a reflector is enough for safety?
Someone riding a bike on a highway (50 mph speed limit) at 1:30 in the morning needs to take some precautions. Maybe the motorist swerved off the road and hit the cyclist. The again, maybe the cyclist was in the road and not paying attention. It seems to me there is ample fault to go around, and little value to suing anyone in civil court. If nothing criminal occurred, then give it a rest!
Maybe this tidbit in the last sentence will shed light:
Cameron has launched a routine lawsuit against the driver, mainly for medical and funeral costs on behalf of the boys and their families. He alleges Simon was speeding and may have been intoxicated and talking on her cell phone.
It appears they sued her first.
They have no evidence that she was drunk, or talking on her cell phone.
And what's with the foreign speed references? Oh yes, to make it seem like she was really speeding. 90, and 10 over the limit, sounds much worse than "She was doing 55mph in a 50 mph zone"
Interestingly, there are some places where bicycles are not allowed on any roads faster than 45mph, because of the danger.
And bikes are required to have lights if they are ridden after dusk.
Yes. The families had sued her already. It is in the last sentence of the article.
Well, the boys were riding bikes without lights the wrong way down a road, and ran head-on into her car. I could see a woman being traumatized by having killed a person, even if it wasn’t her fault.
And then they sued her for it. Was it her fault? The facts we have in evidence don’t suggest so, bikes with no lights in dark clothing driving toward you at 1am is not what you normally expect to see.
(now, I’m an advocate of people driving slower when they need to because you should be able to stop if there is an obstacle in the road, but not a moving vehicle without lights heading toward you in your lane).
I do think it seems cruel, but I don’t think it is illogical that the woman WOULD have long-term mental problems from an accident like this, and if it wasn’t her fault, she may need to sue to get her own liability coverage to cover the treatment. And of course, she might be upset that she is suffering because of their actions, and they are suing her.
A reflector under the seat doesn’t help when your bike is driving TOWARD the car. And often, your downward sloped foot hides the front reflectors on the pedals.
And really, on a 50-mph speed limit road, you think a car driving at 1:30am should see tiny reflections off pedals 6 inches from the ground driving TOWARD the car?
When I go out at night, I have a blinking red light on the back, a blinking blue light on MY back, reflectors front and back, yellow reflective tape on my helmet, and at least one 300-lumen light facing forward, although I recently got a nice 350-lumen light which I really like.
I assume "allowed" means other cops on the scene interviewed them and then let them go.
I'm not sure why someone else called 911, maybe there were other cars on the road and someone else called while the police officer was checking on his wife to make sure she was OK. It seems though he might have called it in (have no idea whether off-duty canadian police have police radios with them).
So they sued the driver, her husband for letting her drive, and the county for not maintaining lights on the road.
After a year of that, the woman counter-sued the families who were suing her, and the county.
And it looks like it is the insurance companies who are mostly suing, which could just mean it is an insurance liability issue.
They were returning to their homes about 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 28, 2012, riding abreast along the two-lane paved rural road, when they were hit from behind by Ms. Simon’s black SUV.If they were hit from behind, they probably were not on the wrong side of the road, as the other articles suggested.
So I apologize for assuming as fact what apparently is just speculation on the part of the news organizations.
A roadside screening device was administered “out of an abundance for caution,” the report said, and registered “zero alcohol content in her blood system.”So while a breathalizer was not used, some mechanical device was used. Don't know what they use in Canada.
In another article, I found the amount of their suit:
Mr. Majewski, Ms. Mlynczyk, their new partners and their children are also suing Mr. and Mrs. Simon and Simcoe County for a total of $900,000So they were suing HER for $900,000, and she responded with a suit for $1.3 million. Seems comparable. They sued her first. In the article they try to blame her for the mental anguish that caused their other son to commit suicide. And she is suing them for the mental anguish of their boys causing an accident which traumatized her.
This article was certainly written to make us mad at her, and to sympathize with the boys and their parents.
Yep - not a new strategy or even odd these days. I have a friend who lost a leg when a truck driver ran a red light and creamed his motorcycle. The driver who ran the light sued my friend who lost the leg.
I don't blame the individuals for such nonsense - the lawyers saw opportunities for more billable hours.
Thx. Perhaps I should put on my glasses before posting:)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.