A 14-year-old Windsor girl is in critical condition after impaling her head on a sawed off golf club being used to mark lines on sports fields at the Ford Test Track.
Madison Arseneault’s family has now hired Jennifer Bezaire of Greg Monforton and Partners as they look to press charges against the City of Windsor.
“What we really need right now is to speak to anyone who either saw what happened, or saw the condition of the field when the chalk lines were being painted on the grass,” says Bezaire. “[That way] we can piece together what happened.”
According to the lawyer, Arseneault is awake at this time, but struggling, and the full extent of her injuries are unknown.
She explains that the girl was with her Grade 8 Gordon McGregor School gym class last Wednesday, when she tripped over wire marking a field and was stabbed by the golf club, which fractured and punctured the back of her skull.
Executive Director of Parks at the City of Windsor Phil Roberts says crews have been using recycled golf clubs for decades when staking fields for painting.
"The reason the golf club is used is it does make it quite visible, with the handle and the grip on it, at each end of the field for our line painter to see as well," he explains. "They are fairly conspicuous and [Arseneault] obviously didn't hit the stake -- she hit the line."
Roberts can't say how the club ended up puncturing the 14-year-old, but he believes the line being tied tightly may have caused the stake to launch from the ground when she tripped on it.
He says the masonry line they use can be hard to see, so city crews will be switching to something thicker and more visible from now on. Extra staff will also be assigned to fields during the painting process and signs will be up, warning those at the park to stay off the field during painting.
Roberts adds that his department feels terrible about the incident and that line painting at all sports fields has been put on hold while an investigation is conducted. He says crews still have "a city's worth of fields" to get painted.
Anyone wishing to speak to Bezaire can call her at 519-258-6490.