The STM has been ordered to pay two former paramedics more than $1 million after they were scared half to death five years ago.
On March 3, 2012, Urgences-Santé paramedics Yolande Poisson and Jean Langlois were called to the Cadillac Metro station following the death of a person on the tracks.
While the pair was working to remove the body from beneath one of the metro cars, an STM employee accidentally sounded the the train horn indicating it was about to roll out of the station, and then sounded it again.
Both paramedics said say they feared the the train was about to start moving while they were still working and franticly crawled out in panic only to learn later it was a false alarm.
Poisson and Langlois told the court at no point did anyone from the STM come to reassure them they were safe or explain what had happened.
Both were later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and declared unfit to work as paramedics or at any other job that would expose them to high level stress situations.
On Monday, Justice Suzanne Courchesne ruled the STM should have immediately informed the paramedics the horn was hit by accident and they were in no danger, adding that had they known right away the shock they suffered would have had considerably less damage on their lives.
The public transport agency was ordered to pay Yolande Poisson $ 624,069 for lost wages and damages and $ 645,500 to Jean Langlois.