Collisions

My house fronts a busy street and when turning left from my drive way in heavy traffic. I generally go through the northbound lane and into the Two Way Left Turn Lane, stop and wait to merge right into the southbound lane. I can’t seem to find legislation saying this is illegal in British Columbia but I haven’t found anything saying it is legal either.

ICBC has published the latest edition of Quick Statistics containing general information about crashes, injured and fatal victims, auto crime and vehicle and driver populations.

On the 19th of August, 2013 Christopher Griffith stopped his vehicle in the parking lot of the Royal Canadian Legion on 106 Avenue in Surrey, B.C. He became involved in an altercation with people present in the parking lot. Matters escalated to the point that these people advanced on his vehicle brandishing weapons and Mr. Griffith feared serious harm to himself, his passenger and his vehicle. He accelerated quickly away, crossing an adjacent vacant lot and departing northbound on 135A Street.

Shan Khan was a pedestrian trying to cross 152nd Street at 81st Avenue in Surrey. She crossed to the median barrier dividing the four lanes of traffic and waited for the approaching vehicles to stop. When the vehicle using the lane nearest to her did stop, she began to cross. Unfortunately the driver behind that vehicle did not stop, changed lanes to pass it and struck Ms. Khan.

On April 24, 2012 an employee of Dueck Downtown Chevrolet Buick GMC Limited left a pickup truck unlocked, unattended and idling with the keys in the ignition outside one of the dealership's detailing bays. It was stolen by David Bolton.

Matthew Salo was riding his hybrid bicycle and approaching a stop sign at an intersection with North End Road on Saltspring Island. His intention was to slow down and turn right without stopping if traffic permitted. There was a beige SUV stopped at the stop sign intending to turn in the same direction. Circumstances of what actually occurred next are unclear and Mr. Salo has no recollection of the incident himself due to injuries suffered. None the less, he claims negligence on the part of the driver and makes a civil claim against ICBC for damages.

Driving behaviour is a never ending curiosity for me, so when I heard a conversation about the intersection of Haslam and Adshead Roads south of Nanaimo I had to take a look. The gist of the story was that most drivers seemed to treat this Y shaped intersection as being uncontrolled and zoomed through it as if the rest of the world was going to stop for them. The sentiment was expressed that it is only a matter of time before a serious crash occurred there.

Here's great advice from Hergott Law about how to protect your interests if you are involved in a crash. According to Paul Hergott, very few of his clients ever take any steps at the scene to gather and preserve information about the crash that could be crucial later on. This is particularly important for short lived evidence which may not remain to be found after the fact and may or may not be documented by police on your behalf.

Harvey Truax stopped his empty B train combination on the shoulder of Highway 1 near Sorrento, B.C. He allowed the 4 vehicles that had been following him to pass by before he started to make a left turn across the highway into a pullout. His left signal was in operation and he had 300 to 400 m. of highway visible behind him. Finding no overtaking traffic, he began to move from the shoulder into the pullout across the highway.

I was in a situation that could have been very ugly. I was waiting to turn right at an uncontrolled intersection. I was waiting for traffic to clear from the lane that I was about to turn into.