A Labour Day passenger ride in 2002 to help an inexperienced truck driver started a bizarre chain of events for Elton McBain.
The semi jackknifed at a highway speed north of Moose Jaw and left McBain with ongoing heath problems - loss of sensation in his right hand and nerve damage, causing pressure on his heart.
Once a truck mechanic, McBain is faced with going on welfare unless SGI resumes his benefits.
The Crown-owned insurer has repeatedly denied his claims, saying the injuries are resolved, said McBain
"I was having some problems with speech and balance and vision."
When he failed to recover fully during 10 months of physiotherapy in Moose Jaw, SGI sent him for 14 weeks to the Wascana Rehab Centre in Regina for treatment.
"On Nov. 2, 2002 my doctor indicated I had a grade three neck injury and at that time there was neurological things."
A doctor at Wascana Rehab then diagnosed him with second grade whiplash-associated disorder and there was an inquiry as to whether it was third grade whiplash.
McBain has experienced, and still does, upper extremity issues including severe cervical headaches, decreased sensation in his right hand and thoracic and chest wall discomfort.
"SGI sent me a letter that I had a release from them without restrictions and that I could go back to work. They cut off my benefits on Dec 31, 2003.
"I resolutely disagreed with their diagnosis all the way through," said McBain. But he was told his perception of the disability is exaggerated.
"They said it was a resolving whiplash (grade) two and there was no neurological problem (in spite of a doctor's diagnosis and a specialist who agreed)," he said.
"It's 5 1/2 years later and I still have this down my right arm." He has chest pressure and on several occasions thought he was having a heart attack.
Interviews with SGI personnel have been "intimidating and humiliating" as the same questions were repeated, biker associated comments were made and notes taken about his personal relationships, he said.
Frustrated by the process, the Willow Bunch resident turned to his MLA Dustin Duncan and Ken Chevaldayoff, minister of Crown Corporations, for help.
A request by the minister to resolve the case was met by "a fair practices letter" from SGI asking for more time.
In January, citing a letter from his doctor that McBain has chest pains caused by the 2002 accident, SGI pulled his Class One commercial licence and gave him a Class Five passenger vehicle licence.
McBain, earning $50,000 a year as a truck driver, is now facing life on $587 a month welfare.
He was so angry he chained himself to a chair in the Moose Jaw SGI office on Friday and was removed by police
"I want my long-term benefits according to Section 141 of the Automobile Act," he said Monday.
McBain is concerned the next SGI medical consultant "is going to determine my fate with the click of a pen and I've never met the guy."
SGI refuses to give him a copy of the company report to the medical consultant, said McBain
"They say it might be a verbal report."
He hopes a 1996 skirmish over a home insurance policy when accidental fire destroyed his Moose Jaw home is not related to SGI's stand.
SGI spokesman Shaun Humphries declined comment except to say the insurer has not seen the medical reports it requires.
Ron Walter can be reached at 691-1264.
Man driven to frustration
Man driven to frustration
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- Published on Febuary 12th, 2008
- Published on July 10th, 2009
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Ron Walter
A Labour Day passenger ride in 2002 to help an inexperienced truck driver started a bizarre chain of events for Elton McBain.
The semi jackknifed at a highway speed north of Moose Jaw and left McBain with ongoing heath problems - loss of sensation in his right hand and nerve damage, causing pressure on his heart.
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- FIghting
- - September 18th, 2009 at 17:34:44
KEEP FIGHTING
THEY ARE ACCOUNTABLE!!!
GO BACK AND KEEP GOING BACK DON T GIVE UP BRO -
- don
- - September 18th, 2009 at 16:10:04
To understand the situation with SGI we have to first see that SGI is a socialist [government owned] insurance company - created in 1945.
SGI has seen six decades of integration into the various infrastructures of Saskatchewan - now holding significant discretionary powers over the population of Saskatchewan.
Of course SGI has an absolute monopoly over the auto insurance market in Saskatchewan - SGI also forced no-fault on the population in 1995.
Yet one doesn't have to be an SGI customer - to encounter a problem with SGI - I was a non-driver riding a ten speed bike - hit by a negligent SGI customer - in Moose Jaw on July 10, 1998.
Before the time of the accident I knew nothing about SGI and their monopoly - I didn't drive.
So in any case the SGI collective thinks it has to collect certain information about every person in the province - health education employment and a great deal of personal information - just in case someone files a claim at some point.
In any case I can post more later on these 'information' aspects of SGI.
SGI has long had it's own SIU - 'special investigations unit' - there are a great deal of evidences over the years that SGI's SIU does much more than investigate suspected insurance fraud.
For example - if an individual in any manner 'protests' an SGI decision their SIU department begins investigations and thus the creation of a related SIU file.
People might be shocked to know what these SIU files might contain and how information can be collected.
Currently SGI doesn't have to release enough of the information they collect.
There needs to be a number of changes to SGI and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
In a private insurance market an insurance company's investigations departments doesn't have any 'direct connection' the 'justice department' - as SGI does in Saskatchewan.
It should be noted that SGI now sells private auto insurance - to motorists in all but three provinces - in all provinces where no government auto-insurance scheme exists.
There is a conflict of interest in that.
SGI denies Saskatchewan drivers the RIGHT to buy auto insurance from private underwriters yet SGI thinks it's no conflict to sell private auto insurance - in the rest of Canada?
What of those who have had ANY problem with SGI and thus do not want to get insurance from SGI?
I have to say that while the people who work at SGI are generally nice and good people - the collective nature of administrating the SGI policies and practices - cultivates some significant friction with clients.
However well intentioned most SGI employees are there are and have been many incidents of baiting frustrated clients that won't give it up - to react in a negative enough way to get a court order to prevent further contact with SGI.
There certainly have been some SGI employees with tendencies to lord over clients and to thus abuse various discretionary powers in the process.
One might say that SGI's practices and policies can bring out the worst in nearly anyone!
Exasperated frustrations in dealing with any corporate bureaucracy and - extended over time - can induce various reactions in people and - especially in any situation where a person is suffering from physical or other pain related to that frustration.
Too many Saskatchewan people don't understand SGI - until they have an ill-experience with SGI - until they experience SGI's irregular policies - feeling 'lorded over' and 'nickel and dimed' as it were.
When a person is in pain and frustrated with a seemingly impersonal government insurance company - a sense of hopelessness ensues - that at times is pressured by the desire to not be lorded over and one thus desires to fight them for what one thinks is right and fair.
Mr. McBain chose a kind of protesting strategy that gives those protested more power over the protester.
I certainly wish that Mr. McBain hadn't chained himself to that chair on Friday and had to be thus arrested.
I can understand his frustrations and I hope that he at last gets proper closure with SGI as a result of this Times Herald article!
I hope that the population of Saskatchewan comes to understand why they need to pressure our NEW GOVERNMENT for important changes at SGI. I have more than few suggestions!
I have my own SGI horror story - please visit my protest website for more information.
http://spyimplants.webs.com
Please keep an open mind when seeing the nature of my SGI 'experience' and please do take some time to read through the entire site - I have not embellished anything in the relating of my plight.
don muntean
