A Barrie, Ont. woman has filed an $11-million lawsuit against the impaired driver who struck her and the bar that she says over-served him.
Mallorie Wild, 20, was walking home with friends on Penetang Street at 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2014, when she was struck from behind by a car. She was pulled under the car and dragged until it collided with another parked vehicle, according to a statement of claim filed in court.
"I remember turning around to see the car and it hit me from behind. I remember getting hit a second time from my back, and then I remember waking up with my face under a car," Wild said through tears at a news conference on Wednesday.
"I started screaming for help. I just laid there screaming, waiting for someone."
The driver fled the scene. Eric Bravener, 21, was later charged with several criminal offences, including impaired driving causing bodily harm and failure to remain at the scene of a collision. He pleaded guilty to the charges, and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 15.
While Bravener awaits his sentence, Wild is launching a civil lawsuit that may bring him back to court.
Since the crash, Wild has spent months in and out of hospitals, undergoing a total of 17 surgeries in just over a year. Her mother described the initial surgeries as "heartbreaking."
"I didn't know when she woke up if she was going to have a leg," Heather Greene said at the news conference.
Wild has undergone a bone graft, skin graft, vein graft and muscle transplant, among other treatments.
After the operations, Wild decided to launch an $11.2 million civil lawsuit against Bravener and his mother, who owned the car he was driving. Also named in the suit is the Bourbon bar in Barrie, where he had been drinking that night, which the lawsuit claims over-served Bravener before he left. None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been proven in court.
The statement of claim was filed in Ontario Superior Court last week. Those named in the lawsuit have yet to file a statement of defence. No one at the bar was available for comment on Thursday.
John McLeish, the lawyer representing Wild, said the amount claimed in the lawsuit is meant to cover future loss of income and care.
"She's got the kind of injury that even after the further surgeries that she's going to have, the years will not be kind to her leg," McLeish said Wednesday.
Wild has enrolled at a college and hopes to become a law clerk, but said that small tasks such as getting dressed and walking around are a challenge.
"My life has completely changed, and just dealing with those daily struggles is so hard. It's probably the worst thing," she said.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Ben Mercer
