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).