Port Mann ice bombs lawsuit details horrifying experience

A Delta, B.C. woman, who claims she was hit in the head hard enough to make it bleed by ice chunks falling from the Port Mann Bridge in 2012, has launched a lawsuit against the company in charge of the project.

She had to lay on her back in the front passenger seat and hold up the roof of the vehicle with her legs'- Lawyer Veronica Milne-Medved

In her claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court, Caryl-Lee Obrecht says her husband was driving across the bridge and she was in the passenger seat of their 2002 Ford Focus when large chunks of ice began to fall.

Her lawyer Veronica Milne-Medved told CBC News the Obrechts had just started across the bridge when the ice began falling.

"They were only a short distance through the bridge when they started experiencing the really large ice bombs being dropped all around them on the bridge," she said.

A large chunk of ice shattered the Obrechts' windshield reducing visibility to nearly zero, said Milne-Medved.

"Traffic had slowed to about 20 km/h. They could hardly see as they were trying to come across the bridge," she said.

Nightmare trip across bridge

A second chunk of ice caved in the sun roof, said Milne-Medved, and moments later, another one went right through the roof and hit Obrecht herself.

"The ice bomb that had hit Mrs. Obrecht on the top of the head had actually lacerated a bunch of the top part of her scalp, and so she had a significant amount of blood that was coming down her head..and the roof was actually caving in, so she had to lay on her back in the front passenger seat, and hold up the roof of the vehicle with her legs, so that her husband could actually make it the remaining way across the bridge."

Milne-Medved said her client told her it was a "horrific experience."

Obrecht suffered a concussion and whiplash, has headaches and nightmares and still suffers from post traumatic stress and depression, Milne-Medved said.

Obrecht is suing the Transportation Investment Corporation, also known as TReO, the Crown corporation responsible for the construction and maintenance of the Port Mann Bridge.

Following the events of December 2012, cable sweepers were installed on the Port Mann's 152 bridge cables.

None of the Obrechts' allegations have been proven in court. CBC has not yet obtained TReO's response to civil claim.

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