A young girl will celebrate her third birthday in a body cast after a traumatic fall on an icy sidewalk, just blocks away from her Orillia home.
Celica Hardie had just left home on Monday with a family friend, while her parents were at work.
“They walked down to the end of the road to go to their house and by the time they hit the end of the road, they wiped out on a massive amount of untreated ice on the sidewalk,” says Jason Hardie, Celica’s father.
Celica was taken to hospital with a broken femur.
Hardie says the sidewalk was like a skating rink that was ignored by city crews and was unsalted for days.
He says the city was negligent and didn’t clean the sidewalk despite repeated complaints.
Public works officials with the city say this was an “isolated incident.”
“I did review the situation the next morning. The same sidewalks further up the street were bear with a skiff of snow on them. It does appear to be an isolated incident,” says Kyle Mitchell, manager of source protection and operations for the City of Orillia.
However, councillor Mason Ainsworth says his own mother broke her ribs after a fall last year.
“Sadly it's not the first time someone has got injured and it's probably not going to be the last.
Hardie says the city has a responsibility to keep sidewalks clear for residents.
With Celica now recovering comfortably at home, the Hardies want to use this traumatic experience as a major wake-up call for the city and its residents to do a better job.
