Top Ten Worst Intersections

Vancouver personal injury lawyers read ICBC’s 2013 list of the top ten Lower Mainland car crash intersections with mixed feelings. As the following Supreme Court of Canada excerpt sets out, likelihood of harm is one measure of reasonable conduct when driving a motor vehicle. In other words, the greater the likelihood of harm, the more care a reasonable driver must take to prevent personal injury. However, some people objectively relate likelihood of personal injury to frequency and statistics. While there is not a lot of law on the subject, public statistics can be admissible in court for the truth of their contents under the public document exception to the hearsay rule.

Conduct is negligent if it creates an objectively unreasonable risk of harm. To avoid liability, a person must exercise the standard of care that would be expected of an ordinary, reasonable and prudent person in the same circumstances. The measure of what is reasonable depends on the facts of each case, including the likelihood of a known or foreseeable harm, the gravity of that harm, and the burden or cost which would be incurred to prevent the injury. In addition, one may look to external indicators of reasonable conduct, such as custom, industry practice, and statutory or regulatory standards.
Ryan v. City of Victoria 1999 CanLII 706 (SCC) at paragraph 28

According to the ICBC report, 64,000 collisions occurred at intersections in the Lower Mainland last year, of which 45,000 resulted in personal injury.