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Yellowknife woman suing city after fall on icy sidewalk

Court dismisses lawsuit against City of Yellowknife for woman's icy tumble

Nancy Vail, on crutches, will make her final arguments Friday in a small claims case against the City of Yellowknife.

Vail suffered a compound fracture to her wrist and damaged her hip after slipping on an icy sidewalk on the evening of Nov. 9, 2015.

Vail remembers hearing a loud sound right before she fell as she walked passed the Arnica Inn near downtown Yellowknife.

"I turned my head really quickly to look and I went down," Vail said.

"When I fell there was just shock waves that went through my whole body… It was dark. I just started screaming."

Vail said she nearly passed out from the pain, but luckily a group of pedestrians came to her rescue. She was quickly loaded into a truck and rushed off to the hospital.

Vail remembers the weather in Yellowknife that day as similar to chinook winds. She says the sidewalk had froze and thawed multiple times throughout the day.

Vail said the city should have treated the sidewalk with gravel.

The City of Yellowknife declined to comment on the case while it is before the courts.

Vail said she had started the process to get surgery on her left hip before the fall, but doctors ended up replacing her right hip — the hip she fell on.

"When I found out they had to do my right hip instead of the left hip, I just got angrier," Vail said.

Vail is also frustrated with how the city has handled her claim so far.

"We have these city streets that are not safe."

Correction : This story has been updated to remove information that CBC is still attempting to verify. (Oct 07, 2016 4:28 PM)