A B.C. triathlete, hit by a car while cycling, is speaking out against ICBC’s no-fault policy.
“I could have died, and this person was yelling at me, saying I did something wrong,” said Deborah Eckhouse, a triathlete recovering from a car crash.
The countdown at the crosswalk on the border of Whiterock and Surrey is constantly playing in the mind of Eckhouse.
“Your brain takes footage, full on screenshots when trauma happens. I remember it completely clear.”
On the morning of April 26, Deboarh was out for her last cycle before competing in an upcoming race, when her life would change forever.
“I’m looking at the countdown on the sidewalk, 7…6… and I go around the car as he’s turning left, but he slams on his brakes. Another car came flying through the intersection, and I just went straight into that car,” she remembered.
Eckhouse suffered serious fractures in her pelvis and left arm, along with a severed tendon, a re-broken left clavicle, and a fractured wrist.
“Who knows if I’m going to be able to run again. If I am, will it be at the speed of a professional triathlete, who’s to say if I can push power on the bike again or if I’ll be able to walk again?” she said.
A few days after the incident and less than two hours after a crucial surgery, Eckhouse got a call from an ICBC claims adjuster.
The person said her property claim involving tens of thousands of dollars in cycling equipment was closed, citing ICBC’s no-fault insurance policy.
“He tells me that I’m wrong, he tells me that I have no claim to property and that the case is closed, and I just remember thinking, ‘this is nuts.’”
According to the Surrey Police Service, the driver of the vehicle was issued a “driving without due care and attention ticket,” and it’s alleged that they entered the intersection when the light was red.
“The fact that one, they were going to close my claim before a police report, and that two, they are going to talk to people that way and treat people that way, I’m not ok with either of those things. It needs to be heard that ICBC is not allowed to get away with this kind of thing,” she told CityNews.
After being contacted by CityNews, ICBC issued a formal apology and said that they are going to reopen Eckhouse’s property claim.
“We contacted Ms. Eckhouse when she was in the hospital recovering from her surgery. We recognize that this was not the appropriate time to communicate that decision with her, and we should have handled the decision with more care,” Tanya Beja, ICBC spokesperson, told CityNews.
But Eckhouse says the damage has already been done.
“I was actually going into shock, like, what did I do wrong. I was lying there broken, in pieces, I could have died, and this person was yelling at me, saying I did something wrong,” she recalled.
ICBC says that its claim staff are going through customer service training to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.
Meantime, Eckhouse continues her recovery and hopes that her story can spark change in a system that failed her.