the long way back to lally road
This is the fourth in a series about a single vehicle motorcycle collision I had in July 2024. The first post is here; the second is here and the third is here. Some of the names of folks in the story have been changed.
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Having replayed the collision over and over in my mind as I lay about healing the best I could, I knew something didn’t quite fit.
Then, with the additional input from James, I felt quite certain I knew what had happened. But I needed evidence. Until you have evidence, all you really have is an opinion or a theory.
I called the OPP detachment in Lanark and asked them to provide me the police report, please and thank you. They sent a one page document that was, well, in a word, useless.
THE USELESS ‘REPORT’
I called back.
This time I was somewhat more successful – they forwarded a report that included the information I already had, plus a diagram and a short written description of the incident.
THE DIAGRAM:
THE SHORT WRITTEN DESCRIPTION:
The diagram and the report were sort of accurate. The parts that weren’t were the path into the ditch and the statement: “As she came around the bend, she took the turn wide…”
In all fairness, I had said to the constable that I “may have been a bit wide coming into the corner.”
At the time, lying on a roadside patch of grass after having shimmied from under TheFox and then dragged myself out of the ditch, that was the best explanation I could come up with.
The ‘went wide’ seed was planted and Constable P. ran with it.
By the time I got the written report above, I knew I hadn’t gone wide. Now I wanted to see the pictures Constable P. had briefly shown me as I lay by the road so I could better understand everything that happened. I called the detachment again.
“We can’t give you the photographs,” they said. “You will have to contact the Solicitor General and ask for them under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.”
What? Sigh.
I went to the website to which I was directed. (In case you ever need to request information from the Solicitor General, here’s the link: https://www.ontario.ca/page/freedom-information-request#section-1 ).
I sent a FOI request via the site. Surprisingly, I got an email answer a few days later:
Hi Susan,
Motor vehicle collision photos can be obtained by going through the OPP detachment directly.
Thank you,
I called the OPP detachment again. I would need to speak with Constable P. (they said). But he’s on holidays for two weeks (they also said).
Constable P. called me back a little over a fortnight later. We exchanged greetings. He commiserated with my back pain. I gave him the incident file number and got to the point.
“I’d like to have the photographs you showed me of my motorcycle in the ditch,” I said.
“I can’t give them to you,” he replied. “You’ll have to submit a request to the Solicitor General’s office under the Freedom of Information Act.”
Hmmmm.
“I did that,” I said. There may have been a slight edge to my voice. “They directed me back to you. I feel like I’m getting the runaround.”
Perhaps I shouldn’t have used the word ‘runaround’…
Constable P. reminded me that he had fifteen (or maybe it was more) years of motorcycling experience and that he was one of only seventy (plus change) officers to be part of the OPP motorcycle corps (not sure of their name). He then went on to describe the circumstances surrounding my collision using the images I was trying to get my hands on, which were obviously in front of him on a screen.
But I didn’t/don’t need a description through someone else’s eyes, I need to see the pics for myself. I decided to go a different route while continuing to try to pry the pics out of the OPP and FOI folks.
“I want to go to the scene in person,” I messaged James. “I would prefer if you come with me, please.”
James agreed to accompany me. I also wanted to go to Crystal MacKenzie’s last Kingston Charity Bike Night on Thursday, August 29; I decided to combine the two.
James rode with me to the Bike Night and returned almost immediately to Ottawa. I enjoyed some of the event and then headed (before dark!) to Westport where I stayed overnight at the Foley Mountain B & B. Timothy, the owner, is, like me, an Airbnb superhost. Timothy’s Foley Mountain B&B is a rustic place located on the North Shore Road, which I took on the way to Lally Road on July 2. Talk about synchronicity.
I met James at the ‘crash site’ at around noon on Friday morning August 30, and we went through how things had likely unravelled a little less than two months before. I will share more about that in the next — and probably the last — post in this collision series.
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