ICBC

The August 14, 2021 edition of Global News Back on the Beat examines how the recent changes to ICBC coverage has resulted in significant difficulties for vulnerable road users, cyclists and pedestrians, if they are involved in a crash. John Daly speaks with David Hay QC, a personal injury lawyer and three cyclists who were hurt in a crash with a vehicle.

Major changes to the way auto insurance in BC functions took place without fanfare on May 1. According to a summary outlining the key changes on the Borden Ladner Gervais LLP web site, you will no longer be able to take legal action for most motor vehicle collision claims.

Tyler Chamberlin is suing ICBC over a hit and run collision alleged to have occurred on July 19, 2018 in Nanaimo. He was riding his bicycle and claims to have been struck by a car whose driver failed to remain at the scene. He says that he suffered both physical and emotional injury.

I’m hoping you can point me in the right direction. My daughter was grazed by a driver who sped through a red light, to be honest she feels if she’d have been walking any faster she’d have been hit and likely killed due to the speed at which the car was traveling.

This happened at the intersection of Union Rd and Glenmore Rd in Kelowna, at exactly 10:45 pm as she walked to catch a bus.

Belair Direct, the auto insurance arm of Intact Insurance has announced that it will stop selling auto policies in BC effective December 1, 2020 and renewing policies on January 1, 2021. They see ICBC’s recent regulatory changes and the province’s current auto insurance market conditions as having reduced opportunities for the private sector to compete.

Would you volunteer to have your driving monitored all the time that you are behind the wheel in order to benefit from reduced insurance rates? Driver telematics are becoming a common way for insurance companies to assess a driver's crash risk and help set rates that are appropriate for that risk level.

ICBC has announced a significant increase in data available to everyone via Tableau Public. Data sets for crashes and vehicle population current to 2019 are provided for manipulation, reporting and download. Crash data can be filtered for the details of an individual crash, including the street and crash configuration (for example, rear end, head on or side impact).

In the early morning hours of April 25, 2015 Kendall Derkson was driving her vehicle on Highway 10 in Surrey. She struck a vehicle driven by Patrick Chan, destroying her vehicle in the process. ICBC refused to cover her loss as she was in breach of her conditions of insurance for being “incapable of proper control of the vehicle” at the time of the collision due to the influence of alcohol.

If you are the victim of a hit & run collision, one of your duties is to make reasonable efforts to identify the driver that hit you. Failing to do this may allow ICBC to refuse your claim. Paul examines Mr. Ghuman's actions after the crash and ICBC's position on what he should have done in the context of the Supreme Court decision.

Do you have less than 5 years of driving experience and hold a BC Driver's licence? If you are interested in taking part in a driver telematics pilot project ICBC is accepting up to 7,000 volunteers to see if using telematics will make you a safer driver.