A Halifax man is suing a woman named Karen Oldfield alleging “carelessness and negligent actions” after he was hit by a vehicle while he was crossing a city street in his electric wheelchair.
But after contacting several sources, the Halifax Examiner can’t confirm the Karen Oldfield named in the lawsuit is the same Karen Oldfield who is the interim president and CEO of Nova Scotia Health.
Taylan Caliskan, a lawyer with MacGillivray Law, filed a notice of action on behalf of the man in Nova Scotia Supreme Court on March 13.
According to the notice, on Dec.15, 2023 at 8:39am, the man was traveling south-west on Barrington Street in his electric wheelchair while the defendant was travelling north-west in her Mitsubishi Outlander.
From the notice:
The Plaintiff states that he was crossing Barrington Street in a marked crosswalk, when the Defendant, devoid of any attention to the Plaintiff’s wheelchair in front, approached along Barrington Street and failed to yield the right-of-way to the Plaintiff in the crosswalk.
As a result, the Defendant’s motor vehicle collided into the left side of the Plaintiff’s wheelchair, in a t-bone collision (the “Collision”). The Plaintiff also states the Defendant’s motor vehicle struck the Plaintiff’s wheelchair two more times causing it to flip over.
Caliskan wrote that the collision “was the result of the carelessness and negligent actions” of Oldfield, including failing to keep and maintain a proper or any outlook, failing to slow down, stop, or take any steps to avoid the collision, and failing to yield the right-of-way to the man, who was in a crosswalk.
According to the notice of action, the man suffered a concussion, “straining, tearing and trauma to the muscles, ligaments and tendons of his back, neck, groin and knee.”
“The Plaintiff continues to suffer from ongoing numbness in his right arm and elbow, along with sleep disruption and anxiety,” Caliskan wrote.
The man is seeking general damages for pain and suffering, loss of earning capacity or future wages, damages for loss of valuable services, cost of care, special damages for medical costs, as well as other costs.
None of the accusations have been tested in court, and as yet no one named Karen Oldfield has filed a defence.
No comment from Nova Scotia Health
The lawsuit doesn’t provide any identifying information on the Karen Oldfield named in the lawsuit, other than she lives in Halifax and drives a 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander.
The Examiner contacted Taylan Caliskan, who is the plaintiff’s lawyer, about the case, asking if the Karen Oldfield mentioned in the lawsuit is the same Karen Oldfield who is the president and CEO of Nova Scotia Health.
“Please note that we use the information from the police report and accident abstract from Access Nova Scotia. We do not get into the detail as to who is who,” Caliskan wrote in an email. “Therefore, I cannot confirm or deny if this is the same person as you are identifying.”
We emailed the Karen Oldfield who is president and CEO of Nova Scotia Health at her Nova Scotia Health email address on Thursday and asked if she is the Karen Oldfield who allegedly struck a man using a wheelchair on Barrington Street, but haven’t heard back. We also emailed media relations with Nova Scotia Health, and spokesperson Brendan Elliott wrote, “Nova Scotia Health has no comment” in an email.
We reached out to Const. John MacLeod, spokesperson with HRP, who confirmed details of the collision on Dec. 15, writing that a man traveling in a motorized mobility scooter was hit by a driver while crossing Barrington Street in a marked crosswalk.
“The pedestrian was taken to hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. The driver of the vehicle was issued a summary offence tickets for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk,” MacLeod wrote in an email.
MacLeod didn’t provide names and instead suggested we call the police department’s Traffic Support Services – Collision Section for “additional information.”
On Friday, we called that section and spoke with a person who identified herself as Cheryl, who suggested we contact Bob Keretschko, who is also employed at Traffic Support Services. We sent Keretschko an email and he responded on Sunday with this message:
Please refer this inquiry to our Public Relations Section as I am not at liberty to release information to the media….thanks.
To recap, wanting to know if the Karen Oldfield who is the president and CEO of Nova Scotia Health was the person accused of striking a man using a wheelchair with her vehicle, we:
• contacted the man’s lawyer, who had no further information;
• emailed the Karen Oldfield at Nova Scotia Health and got no response;
• contacted media relations at Nova Scotia Health, who had no comment;
• asked for more detail from Halifax police public relations, who referred us to Traffic Support Services;
• contacted Traffic Support Services, who referred us back to Halifax police public relations.
Before the Karen Oldfield who is president and CEO of Nova Scotia Health joined Nova Scotia Health in 2021, that Karen Oldfield served as the president and CEO of the Halifax Port Authority for 18 years.
If there is another Karen Oldfield, we don’t know if or where she’s employed.
It’s not in keeping with The Examiner and Tim’s mothods to out someone without all the facts. Even though the article clearly states that the positive identity is not known readers will assume it is that *Karen Oldfield*. I am not sure why it being that *Karen Oldfield* would make any difference.
If it is “the” Karen Oldfield then I suspect an NDA is in someone’s future.
If it was Tim Halman not getting answers from all those people, I wonder what he’d conclude this time? 😉
Following!
I’m disappointed to see this type of story in the Examiner. Why should anyone care whether it’s THAT Karen Oldfield? Even if all your efforts to identify her were successful, what purpose does that serve?
I think it’s in the public interest because she is the top leader of the health authority, which is known to have management issues throughout the organization. It feels “on the nose” perhaps if the CEO directly hits a person with a disability, as opposed to the slow motion damage done by poor management.
Mr. Dennis is 100%, is there so much more important and certainly relative news you could/should be reporting on. Timmy me boy, get the folks focused on what matters, this is crap plain and simple. Maybe identifying members of the committees in articles, that vote on matter before Province House and HRM council would be far more beneficial to the public and your PAYING readers; than ambulance chasing stories like this. Whomever is involved deserves their privacy, I thought the examiner was A LOT BETTER than this! It is not inquiring minds that want to know; it is people with nothing better to occupy themselves with who want to know or as my late grandmother use to say- JUST PLAIN NOSY PEOPLE!
Thank you
If the CEO isn’t the Karen Oldfield subject to the claim, surely NS Health would just say so. The unwillingness of the plaintiff’s lawyer to be more helpful suggests settlement talks are already well underway and that the settlement will include an agreement to keep further details of the incident confidential.
Wouldn’t it have been better to know who the person is before publishing an article with someone’s picture attached?
For sure. I assumed reading it that they wouldn’t have published if it was as simple as just waiting for a response. I was imagining something like ‘well, we’ll never know if we wait but if we publish they’ll probably have to put out a statement’