The Corporation of Delta is appealing a provincial court decision that rejected its bid to have the lawsuit filed by the family of Alexa Middelaer dismissed.
The family alleges that Delta, one of a number of defendants in the civil suit, was negligent by failing to do enough to reduce the speed of vehicles on 64th Street in East Ladner, where the crash took place.
The lawsuit alleges that speed bumps on the road were placed too close to one another and were a contributing or causal factor to the crash.
A lawyer for Delta argued there is no evidence of a link between the speed bumps and the fatal crash that killed the four-year-old almost five years ago. Lanny Robinson, arguing the matter was suitable for a summary trial, where no witnesses are called, noted there had been only one crash in four years along the road - the one that claimed Alexa's life - and that 500,000 vehicles travel the route every year.
However, the judge ruled the only course of action to resolve the matter was through a full trial.
Delta was set to appeal that decision on Wednesday.
On May 17, 2008, Alexa Middelaer and her aunt Daphne Johanson were feeding a horse by the side of the road while the little girl's grandparents waited in a nearby car when a car, driven by Carol Berner, struck the parked vehicle and veered into the field. Alexa suffered fatal injuries and died later in hospital. Johanson was seriously injured.
Berner was convicted of impaired driving causing death, impaired driving causing bodily harm, dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. She was sentenced to 30 months in jail and recently began serving her sentence after her second appeal was dismissed.
The family has also named Berner in the civil suit, along with the provincial Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, and Johanson, who is also a plaintiff in the case.
