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. The court must determine who the driver was to assign liability.
Background of the Crash
Somers and MacLellan were friends that got together after a workday and shared some drinks together. A decision was made to go into town and more liquor was purchased.
On the way back the Ford F250 left the road and rolled over. Mr. Somers was seriously injured and suffered a spinal cord injury that made him paraplegic.
Mr. MacLellan spoke with the police at the hospital and gave a statement identifying the driver as Mr. Somers.
Identifying the Driver
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."
The Decision
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.
Liability was decided to be 75% for Mr. MacLellan and 25% for Mr. Somers as Mr. Somers had not been wearing his seatbelt at the time of the rollover.
A damage award of $6.107.691 was made to Mr. Somers.
Comment
The evidence given by the participants and the logic of the decision on who the driver was at the time of the crash make for interesting reading.
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