Paralympian suing university over pool

REGINA — A jury in Saskatchewan is being asked to decide whether an injury that left a Paralympian a quadriplegic was a tragic accident or because of an unsafe pool.

Miranda Biletski is suing the University of Regina for negligence.

Biletski dove into a pool from competition starting blocks at the university during a swim club practice in June 2005. The then-16-year-old hit the bottom and fractured her cervical vertebrae, leaving her a quadriplegic.

“The pool was unsafe,” her lawyer, Alan McIntyre, said in his final submissions in a Regina court Wednesday.

“But they already knew it wasn’t safe, that’s why they already had a policy about no dives off the lip. They knew it was dangerous.”

Court heard during the three and a-half week long trial that the pool depth of four feet or 1.22 metres was laid out in the tiles.

But McIntyre said the university’s maintenance records for the pool “are horrible.”

Part of the dispute is over whether there was enough water in the pool. McIntyre said court already heard that the person responsible for pool maintenance only added water one time in two months leading up to Biletski’s accident.

The university’s lawyer, Erin Kleisinger, said in her final submissions that the pool depth and the height of the starting blocks met Swimming Canada guidelines.

Swimming Canada rules established in 2002 set the minimum depth to 1.35 metres, but the guidelines also grandfathered pools built before 2002 and allowed 1.22 metres to continue as the minimum for those older facilities.

The university is denying negligence and blames the accident on Biletski and the swim club for deciding to use the starting blocks.