February 2019

Hamilton lawyer Rob Hooper has worked with some of those families and said he’s been contacted by several people about the possibility of “individual lawsuits or the availability of a class action lawsuit.”

Among those he’s spoken with is Tandra Henderson, the mother of Jordyn Hastings who died with her friend Olivia Smosarski when their car crossed the median on the parkway in May 2015.

The lawyer pointed out many factors can play a role in a car crash and said the question now is whether there’s some sort of commonality that points to the friction of the asphalt as a culprit.

Henderson wasn’t up to speaking with a reporter Thursday. Hooper said her family is still trying to come to grips with the news.

“It’s been a mystery and now they’re sitting there going ‘We were just starting to heal and now we find out that maybe our daughter’s death was as a result of some product on the roadway,” he explained.

“They cycle between really angry and really sad and a little bit confused on top of it, probably. They also have to try to deal with the fact the city knew since 2013 that there was a problem and now their child is dead.”