Woman Runs Kids Over With SUV, Sues Victims for $1.35 Millon in Damages

Sharlene Simon, An Ontario woman who struck three teenagers with her SUV while speeding, killing one, is suing the dead teen, his parents, his deceased brother, the families of the other teenagers and the county for $1.35 million, citing that she has suffered from depression, anxiety, irritability and post-traumatic stress since the accident. She blames the boys for negligence. Simon was speeding at the time of the accident. She may also have been talking on her cell phone.

The boy’s family is in shock, and even their lawyer has stated that he hasn’t seen anything like this before.

“In all of my years as a lawyer, I have never seen anyone ever sue a child that they killed,” Barrie lawyer Brian Cameron said. “It’s beyond the pale. I just couldn’t bring myself to tell them on the phone.”

After a face-to-face meeting on Tuesday, the family left gutted.

“I’m devastated, I’m in shock,” said Brandon’s mother, Venetta Mlynczyk, a dental assistant who is drowning in sorrow. “She killed my child and now she wants to profit from it? She says she’s in pain? Tell her to look inside my head and she will see pain, she will see panic, she will see nightmares.”

Simon claims that the boys could have taken precautions to protect themselves and were “incompetent bicyclists,” completely ignoring that a) she was speeding, and b) that the boys were on bicycles, and not encased in tons of steel, the way Simon was. The fact that she is now suing the family is unconscionable and I wonder if she will sue herself next for the emotional damage she will surely inflict on her own person by going after everyone involved in the accident except herself. While she is suing the victims for negligence, Simon is suing the county for failure to maintain safe roads. (Which is fair, how do you expect to speed safely if the roads aren’t perfect? Totally reasonable.)