Woman wonders why she’s at fault for hitting power pole
A Howie Centre woman is wondering why her insurance company is saying she is at fault for hitting a power pole that was across the road after another driver had knocked it down.
“I was stunned on the phone when she told me it was my fault. How is it my fault? We didn’t knock that pole down,” said Donna Matheson.
Matheson has her insurance with The Co-operators and said her dealings haven’t been with her local representatives but with the claims department, which she believes is based out of New Brunswick.
A spokesperson for The Cooperators wasn’t available for comment by press deadline.
The accident happened on Queen Street in North Sydney at about 1:45 a.m. on July 2. An unnamed driver hit the pole causing it to land across the street, then abandoned their still running car on the lawn of the Northside Community Guest Home and left the scene on foot.
Matheson and her friend, Jolene Gouthro, were leaving the Emera Centre’s Canada Day concert when they turned a corner on the street and hit the pole. The pole hit above the bumper so the air bags didn’t deploy. It pushed the grill and hood of the car into the front window.
“All I saw was the pole coming at my face,” Matheson recalled. “I thought my head was going to come off.”
“Live wires is what I saw first,” said Gouthro, who was driving Matheson’s Mitsubishi RVR because she wasn’t drinking. “It was dark and raining and a little foggy. We turned the corner and I didn’t see the pole until it was too late.”
Another car hit the pole shortly after Gouthro did, coming from the opposite direction and going airborne after it struck the pole.
“I’m here being the designated driver and still we get into an accident because of someone else. It’s unbelievable,” said Gouthro.
Matheson shuddered at the thought of how bad the accident could have been.
“He or she could have killed three people tonight … my sons could have been motherless,” said the mother of two.
Gouthro, also a mother of two,
agreed: “The cops said ‘we don’t even know how you guys are alive.’”
Desiree Vassallo, spokesperson for the Cape Breton Regional Police, confirmed the driver of the vehicle who hit the pole has been found and charged with two summary offenses under the Motor Vehicle Act — driving an unregistered vehicle and failing to report an accident.
According to Matheson, when she spoke to the insurance representative about the claim, the woman used Google Maps as a way to look at the road and determine if they were at fault or not.
“She told me Jolene should have been more aware and should have seen the pole in the road and been able to drive around it,” she said.
“It’s a pole. Even if you try to swerve you still hit it. It was across the road and on the sidewalk, how do you avoid that?” added Gouthro.
Nova Scotia Power confirmed the length of the pole knocked down was 35 feet and Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s Public Works confirmed the width of the road where the accident happened is 26 feet.
“I don’t want that on my record as an at fault accident. I am paying enough in insurance now, if they jack it up or double it I won’t be able to afford it,” explained Matheson, who is a widow and stay-at-home mother.
“I saw the car in the daylight and started to cry… Kevin, my late husband, was definitely looking after us that night,” she said.
Both Matheson and Gouthro have soft tissue injuries from the accident and are looking into legal representation.
The Co-operators people have told Matheson they will continue to investigate but are still considering the accident to be their fault.
“I’m angry, very angry, that the other person didn’t stop to warn traffic,” she said.
Gouthro added, “It’s selfish… It all could have been prevented if the driver had got out of their car to stop traffic.”