A B.C. child has lost a bid against ICBC and a driver to replace his bicycle damaged in a car accident.
ICBC had ruled the accident was the boy’s fault but he disagreed. So, the boy’s father, BB took the case to the B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal. There, tribunal member Sarah Orr said the boy, AB, collided with a car driven by CD June 28, 2022.
“ICBC internally determined that the accident was entirely [AB's] fault,” Orr said.
As a result, ICBC and CD said the minor was responsible for repairing or replacing the bike.
AB had claimed $300.
Orr said AB said in a dispute notice that he was riding his bike on the sidewalk when a vehicle “drove out of a parking lot and ran him over.”
AB claimed he was pinned under the vehicle’s front bumper with his bike on top of him.
CD said she was driving towards the parking lot exit at about five kilometres per hour while checking for pedestrian traffic as she approached the sidewalk. CD said approximately four feet from the sidewalk AB made a fast right turn from the sidewalk into the parking lot, and hit her vehicle, which was stopped at the time of impact.
Orr said CD provided a statement with a diagram of the accident area as well as a witness statement that Orr found “generally consistent with her account of the accident.”
An ICBC representative told Orr the public insurer was not a proper respondent to the dispute because AB didn't make specific claims against it.
Orr said the tribunal has consistently found that an insured person may claim against ICBC if they believe that ICBC did not meet its statutory or contractual obligation to reasonably investigate an accident.
Orr said there was no evidence that AB was insured by ICBC.
"Even if he was, he does not allege that ICBC acted unreasonably or improperly in its investigation and assessment of fault,” Orr said.
Orr said the claim is against CD and dismissed claims against ICBC.
She said AB did not make submissions to the tribunal in the matter. And, Orr said, BB had repeated problems accessing his tribunal account to provide submissions.
In the end, Orr ruled in favour of CD.
“While I am not bound by ICBC’s fault determination, on the evidence before me, and the notable lack of evidence or submissions from (AB), I am satisfied that (AB) was entirely responsible for the accident.”
While Orr anonymized the participants to protect the child’s identity, Glacier Media has chosen to alter the initials to further protect that identity.
