Pulling a Vehicle Out of the Ditch

Published by DriveSmartBC –
Miscellaneous
Q&A

Question: I Tow Truckhave seen several cases of helpful citizens pulling cars out of the ditch with ropes and chains. Often times this obstructs other vehicle traffic, sometimes in both directions. Last night in the dark several vehicles had close calls with 'helpers' out on the road in the dark.

I always understood it was illegal to do this, without proper safety gear and maybe certification or license to do rescues?

image of pulling a vehicle out of the ditch

No Specific Prohibition From Pulling a Vehicle Out of the Ditch

There is nothing in the Motor Vehicle Act that would specifically stop a good samaritan from pulling a stuck vehicle out of the ditch. It would be how they chose to do it that would cause a problem and those close calls you refer to would be the issue.

Possibility of Significant Risk

If you watch Highway Thru Hell or Heavy Rescue: 401 you see all the safety precautions that are taken before crews start to remove a vehicle. Despite this, there are still drivers who don't slow down and even collide with the tow trucks. Flaggers, barricades and flashing lights are sometimes not enough to keep everyone safe.

With a bit of planning and consideration you might be able to give another driver a quick tug back onto the road without causing trouble but anything more than that is likely best left to the professionals.

No Exemptions from the Rules of the Road

As the rescue driver in this situation, you don't have any exemption from the rules of the road. Add your duty to drive with reasonable consideration for others and not to drive without due care and attention and you can see that opportunities to help are limited.

Possibility of Insurance Coverage Denial

I asked ICBC about this situation and whether helping out would see a denial of insurance coverage if a crash occurred while a driver was attempting to pull another vehicle out of the ditch. "That would depend on the situation" was the response and they would not discuss it further. The risk is yours.

Consider Calling a Tow Truck Instead

Unless it is a matter of life and death, you should carefully consider the potential of your actions before you try to pull someone else out of the ditch.

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Comments

Published by my5cents – 2026/02/08 - 14:46 | Permalink

There are several acts or omissions that can result in breaching coverage.  Generally doing something “stupid” isn’t one of those acts.

The real question is whether pulling someone out of a ditch with a vehicle is, falls under the description as defined in the Insurance (Vehicle) Act under section 1.1 – 
“accident” means an accident arising out of the use or operation of a vehicle

(ironically the BC Ins (Veh) Act still uses "accident", instead of "incident")

Now, is pulling another vehicle out of a ditch “use or operation of a vehicle”.  That’s why we have courts and lawyers.

Expanding the topic,,, another “Road Service” we see performed even more frequently is “jump starting another vehicle”.  The use of jumper cables from one vehicle to boost the starting power of a second vehicle’s battery.

The problem lies, because generally vehicles have batteries in the front.  Usually requiring vehicles to be side by side or more often nose to nose.  Not really a problem when a vehicle fails to start after being parked in the parking lot at the grocery store.

When a vehicle dies at the side of the road, the need for the jump starting vehicle to maneuver nose to nose, now facing oncome traffic causes the problem.

Lots of traffic violations, but another problem, that’s not often thought of….

I know of this happening on a rural highway near Lumby… A dark raining night the good Samaritan pulls their vehicle nose to nose facing oncoming traffic.  Not thinking about their headlights now shining towards oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road.

With our new vehicles, generally there still is a way to run your engine with your headlights off, but it requires some doing. In the case at hand, the illuminated headlights of the good Samaritan’s vehicle confused an oncoming vehicle, the driver thinking a vehicle was coming at him in on the wrong side of the road, swerved and I think it might even have been a fatality.