It looks like British Columbia may be catching up to the rest of the country when it comes to leaving the full tort system behind. The legislation, introduced in late April and set to take effect next year, makes it so that settlements for minor injury claims will have a $5,500 cap.
When three people died, two of them young children, as a result of a multi-vehicle car accident in April 2017, several families’ worst nightmares came true. Ella Hernandez, 9, and Tyler Mollie Wong Hernandez, 3, as well as a 30 year old woman were killed when a driver tried to pass on the highway located near Pitt River Road and forced two other vehicles into oncoming traffic.
First coined in 1988, the term “road rage” became common in the mid 90s. Many drivers have been subject to rude gestures or grimaces through a car window by a disgruntled driver. Road rage is not often mentioned by British Columbia authorities in an era of distracted driving, and which now promotes anger management classes.
With a shudder, a hockey Mom in Langley remembered regularly driving her son to catch buses bound for out-of-town games. As our entire country mourned after the catastrophic bus crash in Saskatchewan, this British Columbia mother launched a tribute that instantly went viral.
Distracted driving has come to be associated with cell phone use at the wheel. Yet there are other well-known distractions, such as changing a radio station, lighting a cigarette or being diverted by a billboard. Inattention to an upcoming crosswalk in the busiest city in British Columbia leaves pedestrians open to injury as well.
Injuries suffered due to a roadway accident can be minor, serious, critical or life-threatening. Even when minor, injuries can turn out to have fatal consequences. This is what happened when a mother of four was struck down while standing at a bus stop in Maple Ridge, British Columbia.
It’s something one never wants to experience: helplessness in the face of a head-on collision. Crashing at high speed will dramatically reduce the protection of air bags and seat belts. In a recent car accident in British Columbia, the impact caused by two speeding drivers sent one to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
It’s difficult to know for sure but statistics are ramping up against the value of daylight savings time. “Spring forward, fall back” is a catchy mnemonic that is now being questioned all across Canada. Except for Saskatchewan, all provinces adhere to this wartime tradition.
Dealing with the untimely death of a loved one is never easy, and the trauma of the loss may be exacerbated if the negligence of someone else caused the death. If you face such a situation, you might have grounds for a wrongful death claim.
It’s all too often the case, or rather, the cause. Cell phone use while driving can cause a car accident in the blink of an eye. According to recent statistics, more accidents occur due to distracted driving than impaired driving. Reportedly, 78 lives are lost each year in British Columbia because of drivers’ attention distracted from the road by talking or texting on a cell phone.
