commentary by Patrick H. Moore
I’ve been lucky. Anyone who knows me well will tell you that, and not just in my wild late teen and early adult years. Let’s go all the way back to middle school, only I’m so ancient that they still called it junior high back in those Neolithic days.
My friend Johan and I lived on our bikes and we were holy terrors – darting in-and-out of heavy traffic, riding for miles without ever touching our handlebars, and always riding without lights or reflectors in the dark. And keep in mind that this was literally decades before all the over-protected, middle-class kids began wearing helmets, not while riding their non-existent chopped Harleys, but rather while riding their bicycles. In all truth, I would have slit my own throat with a rusty razor blade before I would have popped a helmet onto my foolish early teen skull.
Somehow we survived. Johan is now a retired forest ranger somewhere in the hills of Southern Oregon and I’m here in LA trying to keep my guys and gals out of prison.
The reason I bring this up is because Brandon Majewski of Lake Simcoe, Ontario, 90 km north of Toronto, was also a bicycle afficianado, but of the modern variety which means way cool state-of-the-art equipment and all the accoutrements. The problem is Brandon is no longer with us because even though he did use reflectors, he was struck and killed by Sharlene Simon and her SUV while he was on a hot-dog run at 1:30 am on October 28, 2012.
Now, to the horror of Brandon’s father, Derek Majewski, the woman who struck and killed his son is suing Brandon and the two boys he was riding with (one of whom was seriously injured) for emotional trauma she says she has suffered as a result of plowing into Brandon from behind while driving over the speed limit on that dark and rainy night.
This is the sort of thing that makes you think the whole world is completely crazy and full of evil conniving people, and perhaps it is.
Tracy McLaughlin of the Toronto Sun writes:
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. “Sometimes, it makes my blood boil.”
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.
Brandon, who is described as spunky and reasonably good-looking, was out with his two buddies on that fateful night when they hopped on their bicycles to go for hot dogs at around 1:30 am.
“I know they should not have been out there that late,” says Derek. “But they are good kids.”
Brandon was struck from behind by Ms. Simon who was driving 90 km an hour, 10 km over the speed limit. He was killed and his friend Richard McLean, 16, was seriously injured with a broken pelvis and other broken bones. Their third friend, Jake Roberts, 16, was knocked off his bike but fortunately sustained only scratches.
Simon, a mother of three, who formerly lived in Innisfil, is not only suing Brandon for emotional trauma. She’s also suing the two other boys, as well as the dead boy’s parents, and even Brandon’s brother who died most tragically from swallowing too many pills and drinks while in the throes of grief a few months after the accident. Not content with suing every person in sight, Simon is also suing the County of Simcoe for allegedly failing to maintain the road properly.
Even Brian Cameron, the Majewski family lawyer, is in shock from the sheer inappropriateness of the lawsuit.
“In all of my years as a lawyer, I have never seen anyone ever sue a child that they killed. It’s beyond the pale. I just couldn’t bring myself to tell them on the phone.”
After a face-to-face meeting Tuesday, April 22, Brandon’s parents and step-parents left Cameron’s office almost staggering in disbelief.
“I’m devastated, I’m in shock,” said Brandon’s mother, Venetta Mylnczyk, a dental assistant. “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.”
In his grief, Venetta recalled her last words with her son.
“I said I love you … he said, ‘I love you, too, mom,’ and off he went with his friends,” Mylnczyk said. “At least I have that … but for this woman to be so selfish, to claim she is the one suffering but we are the ones living the nightmare … her children are still living.”
“It blows my mind,” Brandon’s step-mom, Lisa Tessier, said. “We are all devastated. This is so cruel.”
The specifics of the lawsuit are as follows: Simon is claiming $1.35 million in damages due to her psychological suffering, including depression, anxiety, irritability and post-traumatic stress.
“They did not apply their brakes properly,” the claim states. “They were incompetent bicyclists.”
For his part, Brandon’s father Derek defends his son and his friends without reservation.
“They’re kids! And they have a right to make mistakes … it was a wet, dark road — what about slowing down?”
Furthermore, Derek insists that the reflectors on the bikes would have been visible.
The police report states that Sharlene Simco Simon admitted that she was driving at 90 km/h in an 80 km/h zone on the two-lane road. She claims, however, that she didn’t see the boys or any of the orange-red pedal reflectors. The impact of the collision cracked the windshield of her SUV and dented the front bumper. A headlight was shattered, and the roof of the SUV, into which Brandon pitched headfirst, was dented and scratched.
The report also states: “No breathalyzer was performed. Although police say no alcohol was suspected and no charges were laid.
Simon’s husband is Jules Simon, a York Regional Police officer, who just happened to be driving behind his wife on the night of the accident. Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, he is barely mentioned in the police report, but is reported to have pulled over when Brandon was struck. (Well, I would imagine so.) Shortly thereafter, he drove his wife home in his vehicle.
Two hours later, Brandon died in the hospital from multiple traumatic injuries.
When the police knocked on Derek Majewski’s front door and the dogs began to bark, somehow Derek already knew.
“I knew,” said Derek. “I had a gut feeling.”
Six months Brandon’s funeral, his brother Devon, 23, who had just graduated as a paralegal, died quietly in his bed after after too many pills with alcohol. It is not believed to have been an intended suicide, merely a grieving brother taking substances to try and sleep.
“This has ripped our family apart,” says Derek. “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?”
Brian Cameron has launched a routine lawsuit against the Sharlene Simon, mainly for medical and funeral costs on behalf of the boys and their families. The lawsuit alleges that Simon was speeding and may have been intoxicated and talking on her cellphone.
“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.”
* * * * *
Because none of the allegations have yet been tested in court, it is too early to know how this is going to play out.
Although I am vaguely religious on certain days of the week, I do not tend to believe that HELL exists as an actual place where bad people go to be punished. Thus, Sharlene Simon is probably in little danger of spending eternity down amongst the flames.
She deserves some form of punishment, however, for launching her execrable lawsuit. Perhaps she will come down with a virulent case of Litigation Fever. Oh damn, she already has, you say? That’s what I was afraid of.
I generally consider many civil lawyers to be depraved and dissolute life forms, and after learning about this case, I am more convinced of that than ever. Of course, they generally wouldn’t be able to do their damage without willing and thoroughly unscrupulous clients such as Sharlene Simon to represent.