Judge orders safety fine be used to purchase prosthetic arm for victim

A provincial court judge has ordered the bulk of a $100,000 fine against the City of Edmonton go towards a proper prosthetic for a woman who lost her arm when it was crushed on the job.

Garbage truck driver Vickie Galet lost her left arm when it was caught between her truck and a front-end loader in a city waste management facility on June 6, 2015.

Judge D’Arcy DePoe finalized the unusual order Tuesday after hearing earlier about the physical, mental and emotional suffering Galet experienced following her workplace injury, made all the more challenging because of court delays, lack of communication from the city and limits on assistance from the Workers’ Compensation Board.

“This was the one opportunity that she is going to have, and I’m not going to let it go by,” DePoe said Monday when he asked the lawyers in the case to alter their joint sentencing submission so that the money could be used to purchase a prosthetic arm for the woman.

On Monday, the city admitted to one count of failing to ensure vehicle traffic was controlled on a work site to protect employees. Court heard there was no effective communications system in the facility, and that changes implemented the day before hadn’t been assessed for any change in risk.

Originally, the city and the loader’s operator faced multiple Occupational Health and Safety code charges. Those charges were withdrawn after the guilty plea was accepted.

In a victim impact statement read in court, the previously active and energetic 56-year-old mother and grandmother said she’s lost her purpose in life: she can’t garden anymore, or take part in sports or other activities with her family. She used to be an avid cook, baker and homemaker. She can no longer pick up her grandchild.

Despite physical therapy and attempts to get workplace accommodations, her doctors declared her permanently unfit to work.

“It just feels like my life has come to sitting on the sidelines and watching,” Galet said.

She wears no prosthetic because the Workers’ Compensation Board was only willing to cover a model that uses cables strapped across the torso and operates by movements in the opposing shoulder. She struggled to learn how to use it before giving up.

“I’m not just an employee, but a woman devastated mind and body by their carelessness toward my safety,” she said.

The charges weren’t laid until May 25, and all of that time she was left doubting herself, wondering if she’d done something wrong, she said outside the courtroom Tuesday.

On Monday, court heard the original joint sentencing submission was a $100,000 fine and a $15,000 victim surcharge. Normally, the money would go to the province’s general revenues.

“The level of suffering that this victim has described seems to cry out for some sort of assistance for her,” DePoe said.

He ordered that $114,000 be held in trust to be used to purchase a more appropriate prosthetic, as well as any associated costs.

“This poor woman has waited 33 months for some form of justice to be done,” DePoe said, noting that as time passed, the degeneration in Galet’s shoulder may have progressed to the point that a prosthetic may not work anymore.

DePoe also criticized what he called “systematic” delays in the Crown prosecutors’ office when it comes to laying charges in these types of investigations, and remarked that the Workers’ Compensation Board could have done more for Galet.

He also said the city is generally a conscientious employer, but “was lacking ” in following up with Galet after her injury.