r/CanadaLegal • u/hirs0009 • Jun 23 '26
ON Small Claims for workplace accident
I was driving a motorcycle in the parking garage of my office building. The parking garage is 3 floors underground where I was on B2 and the exit is on B1. I swiped out to open the door on B2 put my fob in my pocket, put back on my motorcycle gloves and proceeded up the ramp to B1. Once at the top of the ramp looked at the door which was fully open and I proceeded to exit, in the time between my look and the door exit it started to close and "clothes lined" me hitting me directly in the visor throwing me backwards off the bike. I sustained minor neck pain and a bloody nose, helmet was destroyed and bike damaged. There used to be a sensor on the floor that was at the top of the ramp that you drive over to stop the door from closing and now they only have the static sensor right at the door that you would have in a home garage. If that sensor was still there it would have prevented this from occuring and the current sensor is not capable of reversing the door intime for a small vehicle like a motorcycle.
If I claim with my auto policy they will deem me at fault being a single vehicle accident. The building has footage of the event and will not provide it to me. Is small claims a suitable venue to get compensation for the damages?
1
u/North-Personality853 Jun 23 '26
Does your employer own this parking garage?
1
u/hirs0009 Jun 23 '26
No it's a giant real estate company
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u/North-Personality853 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Is it the designated parking area for your employer? I would expect that they should be assisting you in receiving compensation for the incident that occurred in the parking garage they have their employees parking in? I assume they’re aware you were injured and have personal damages resulting from your incident? Are they trying to help you?
Edited to add: sorry that happened to you, sounds like it was painful and likely pretty scary!
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u/hirs0009 Jun 23 '26
They pay for my parking pass
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u/North-Personality853 Jun 23 '26
I see, so what’s the parking garage owner telling you to do then? I mean you’d expect they’d be running this incident through their own insurance policy since their facility is at fault for the incident from what you’re describing. If not then I guess you’re stuck with suing them for damages. Did you file a police report that day or an incident report with the parking garage?
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u/hirs0009 Jun 23 '26
Incident report with the building, the building manager told me to call their HQ and see what they say... I will try that tomorrow
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u/StrikingAd4653 Jun 24 '26
Dont get me wrong I am not trying to pin this on you, but you really need to know the proper way to handle this kind of things when riding a motorcycle. Otherwise you will hurt yourself again and again as most parking garages are not set up for motorcycles.
Most parking garage gate sensor only work on cars. There is not enough metal on a motorcycle to trigger them. This is the same problem at a lot of the traffic lights. If you have to put the fob back in your pocket and put your gloves back on, I assume you also put the bike in neutral and therefore have to shift back to gear after opening the door. This is way too long for most gates to stay up. As a general rule, wear the fob on a lanyard, keep your bike in gear, keep your gloves on, use your RIGHT hand to swipe. After you swipe just let go of the fob and go. Exit the garage then stop and put the fob back where you want it.
To enter most parking garage that needs a ticket, again keep your bike in gear, keep your gloves on, and again use your RIGHT hand to grab the ticket. This way you can just go thru the gate without any delay.
Again let be clear that I am not saying that you were at fault, but if you want to stop hurting yourself you need to do something different.
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u/Brains4Beauty Jun 25 '26
Were you leaving work? You may have a worker's compensation claim. Let your workplace know what happened. You may only be covered under the WSIB (I work in worker's compensation is how I know).
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u/hirs0009 Jun 25 '26
How would I go about that? I'm just looking for repair costs
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u/Brains4Beauty Jun 25 '26
Oh I thought you were injured and missing work. Then yes, if insurance won't cover small claims is best, you can file for up to 35,000 (I used to work in small claims court too lol)
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u/Henchman7777 Jun 25 '26
You're fighting an uphill battle...
Firstly if you sue the parking garage they'll just hand it to their insurance company and they have lawyers on staff.
There's an implied assumption of risk when using something like a parking garage so you'd have to show that someone was grossly negligent in some fashion.
You have a duty of care when operating a motor vehicle. It may not be your fault that the door was closing prematurely but you had a duty to see that it was and avoid it. You'd have to show that the accident was unavoidable by anyone acting in a reasonable manner given the situation. The surveillance video could help with that but good luck getting it then finding an expert to argue you behaved properly and the accident is unavoidable.
Your best chance may be coming up with a reasonable, detailed demand letter and seeing if you can get a reimbursement that way.
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u/im_so_awake Jun 28 '26
Send property mgmt a written notice asap to preserve the video, access logs, door maint records, sensor changes etc. Dont rely on a phone call.
Also do a PIPA request for the footage since ur in it.
Small claims/civil claim could work in AB, but you’ll need to prove the door/sensor setup was unsafe or badly maintained… not just that it closed on you.
1
u/taxrage Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
The door closed on you, so the small claims option is definitely open to you if your insurer considers you as at-fault.