Collisions

A vehicle driven by the plaintiff, Mona Saffari, collided with the rear of a vehicle driven by the defendant, Martin Lopez, and owned by the defendant, Stephanie Pfeifer. At the time, both vehicles were headed from North Vancouver toward Vancouver and had entered the on-ramp to proceed southbound on the Lions Gate Bridge. Mr. Lopez had stopped suddenly on the on-ramp and was held partially at fault for the collision in this judgment.

In this case, Mr. Erickson had parked his truck on the wrong side of the road at night, leaving his headlights on high beam while he collected his mail from the community mailboxes there.

Who would have thought that a laptop could turn out to be a lethal weapon? Likely not Heather Story who was involved in what would otherwise have been a survivable crash in Surrey. According to the coroner, her death was likely caused by the laptop she had on the back seat striking the back of her head during the collision.

It used to be common knowledge that you must report a collision to police if there is death, injury, aggregate damage over $1,000 for motor vehicles, $800 for motorcycles and $100 for cycles. After changes to the law effective on July 1, 2008 this is no longer the case. Collisions do not have to be reported to police, or anyone else, to fulfil the reporting requirements of the Motor Vehicle Act.

Fortunately for us all, the majority of collisions in British Columbia don't involve injury or death. Rather they leave us feeling foolish and facing a significant dollar amount of property damage. How do you protect yourself in the event of a collision like this, especially since the police may not attend property damage or minor injury crashes?

A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests that the declining death rate in vehicle crashes since 1994 is due to the protection provided by improvements in automotive design. It is not due to enforcement, changes in highway design standards or increased driver competence. It comments on our increasingly hazardous traffic environment and cautions against the increased travel speeds favoured by today's drivers.

I was driving through Nanaimo on a day off and approching an intersection showing me a green light. Just as I entered, I heard a loud crash and glanced to my left. One vehicle had attempted a turn across the highway and had gotten into the way of oncoming traffic.

I glanced into my rearview mirror and watched the car cross over the highway behind me and stop in the ditch. What to do now?