20 Jul Contributory Negligence When Riding in an Unsafe Vehicle
If you ride in a vehicle that you know is unsafe, you may be found contributory negligent for your injuries.
In Wormald v. Chiarot, 2015 BCSC 272, a 15 year old Plaintiff was found to be 40% at fault for her injuries after riding in an over-crowded, speeding vehicle driven by a novice driver.
In finding that the Plaintiff was contributory negligent, the court considered she knew that:
(a) the driver had a novice licence;
(b) the driver had been drinking, contrary to her novice licence;
(c) the driver had more passengers in the vehicle than was allowed by her novice licence;
(d) the vehicle had more occupants in it than it was designed to carry;
(e) over the course of the night in question, the Plaintiff had several opportunities to remove herself from the situation but did not do so;
(f) the Plaintiff sat in an area of the vehicle where she knew there were no seatbelts; and
(g) the other occupants planned to throw eggs at people from the moving vehicle (with the reasonable expectation that the vehicle might be chased).