TORONTO — The family of a 15-year-old struck outside his Mount Dennis high school is suing the driver, the City of Toronto and the Government of Ontario, arguing the province’s speed-camera ban left a known school crossing unprotected.Elijah Adebayo was in the crosswalk at Humber Blvd. and Louvain St. about 2:35 p.m. on March 25 when a vehicle hit him in front of St. Oscar Romero Catholic Secondary School. The statement of claim, filed Sept. 3, says he suffered a traumatic brain injury, vision loss in his right eye, skull and facial fractures, a carotid-artery injury, abdominal trauma and a broken femur that needed surgery, plus lasting cognitive and behavioural harm.His parents, Taiwo and Adebola Adebayo, are seeking $3 million in special damages, $12 million in general damages and $1 million in punitive damages. Lawyers Patrick Brown and Nick Todorovic of McLeish Orlando LLP act for the family. None of the allegations have been tested in court, and no statement of defence has been filed..Ford to spend $210M on speed camera alternatives after legislating removal.Toronto police charged Othman Omar Mahmood, 71, with dangerous operation of a vehicle and careless driving. He stayed at the scene. The claim alleges he was speeding, may have been impaired or using a phone, and had prior vision problems.The same filing pins part of the blame on Queen’s Park. An automated speed-enforcement camera went in at the TTC stop across from the school in April 2025 and was shut down and pulled on Nov. 14, 2025, after the province repealed the law that let municipalities run the devices. The limit in the Community Safety Zone, designated in 2020, is 40 km/h. While the camera operated, it ticketed drivers as high as 107 km/h — and two of the top 10 tickets were for 82 km/h — which undercuts any claim the unit stopped speeding on its own.The suit says the city and province installed no replacement — no new physical calming, no promised large signs — in the four months between the camera coming down and the crash, despite resident complaints and known sightline problems from fencing along a waterway in the median..Premier Doug Ford banned municipal speed cameras last fall, calling them a “cash grab.” Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said the province would push speed bumps, cushions, roundabouts and bigger signs instead, and earmarked money for those works. A February city staff report said it would take Toronto 13 years and $52 million to put that kind of infrastructure on every school-zone road.City data released this year showed more drivers well over the limit at former camera sites after November. Mayor Olivia Chow used the first week of school this month to demand the cameras back. Ford has not reversed the ban.The claim’s core allegation is not that a camera would have stopped this specific car. It is that the province ordered the devices down and did not put the “100% effective” replacements Ford advertised in place at a 40 km/h school crossing before students walked out the door.
