CASE LAW - Somers v MacLellan

BC Courts Coat of ArmsHe was driving! No, I wasn't he was driving! The case of Somers v MacLellan involves a single vehicle collision with two vehicle occupants that occurred one night on the Old Fort Loop Road in Fort St. John. Cody Somers was ejected from the vehicle and Richard McLellan remained inside.

Madam Justice Tucker had the difficult task of deciding which of the two was the driver of the vehicle at the time of the crash. Alcohol use complicated the making of that decision and she observed that "at least one of the parties is flatly lying" and "neither is generally worthy of belief."

Testimony was heard from both police and forensic crash reconstruction engineers as well as Somers and MacLellan. After considering it all, Justice Tucker found that Mr. MacLellan was the driver at the time of the crash.

The evidence and the logic of the decision make for interesting reading.