Woman seeks accountability after car damaged in freak skywalk incident

A Winnipeg woman whose vehicle was damaged by glass after it fell from a Health Sciences Centre skywalk while she was driving seeks transparency about the incident so it doesn’t happen again.

The woman, who the Free Press is not naming, said she was driving down William Avenue on May 24, when she heard a loud noise on the roof of her car.

“All of a sudden, a bunch of glass came raining down on my car, it felt really heavy and there was just a ton of it,” she said late last week. “I didn’t know at all what happened.”

She said the STARS air ambulance helicopter was operating in the area at the time. She initially thought something was thrown at her car, but soon realized that wasn’t the case.

“After getting out and investigating, I saw that the (skywalk) window was blown,” she said. “I just freaked out. I went to (HSC) security and let them know right away because there was glass everywhere.

“I can’t even imagine what would have happened if it was a pedestrian or if someone had their (sunroof) open.”

“Security was wonderful when I first told them about it, they made sure I was OK, but after that, there hasn’t been anything from the hospital,” she said. “It was just such a shock.”

“I just freaked out. I went to (HSC) security and let them know right away because there was glass everywhere.”

Shards of glass hit her car causing extensive damage to the trim, paint and windshield. She said an estimate from Manitoba Public Insurance said the vehicle sustained about $10,000 in damage.

She has been forced to pay out of pocket for a rental vehicle and gas (her car is electric), and is still working with MPI to determine liability.

She said she wants HSC and Shared Health, the provincial health authority that oversees Manitoba’s health-care system, to help her with the costs from the incident.

She said she only learned an investigation had been launched by Shared Health after reading a Free Press story on the incident.

“It was really serious,” she said. “What could have happened could have been a lot worse. They could have been more upfront.”

She wants the health authority to tell her what’s being done to prevent a similar incident in the future.

She was contacted Tuesday morning by Shared Health about the potential to apply for reimbursement after her concerns were brought forward by the Free Press.

“It was really serious… What could have happened could have been a lot worse.”

The Free Press reached out multiple times to Shared Health but has yet to receive a response.

The authority previously said “an object” had struck the sidewalk, causing a pane of glass to break. It did not say what the object was and what caused it to fall.

The statement noted HSC has reviewed security footage from “several angles” but there was no evidence of what hit the skywalk, saying repairs are underway.

A spokesperson for STARS previously said its helicopter was unaffected.

The woman said she still feels uneasy when she travels under the skywalk, saying she regularly sees the black panel that has replaced the pane of glass, serving as a constant reminder.

“It just brings back that feeling of being hit,” she said. “Every time I see it, I just wonder: ‘Is anyone going to talk to me? Am I going to get any kind of compensation? Does anybody care?”

On Tuesday, the woman called the chance to apply to be reimbursed for the damage “a start.”

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca