A B.C. Supreme Court Justice has found a woman who was driving a van with winter tires on only the front wheels completely responsible for a winter collision on Highway 16 West that left an occupant of another vehicle severely injured.
Claire Heather Singleton was also driving at 90 km/h when her eastbound vehicle went out of control near Telachick Road and struck an oncoming car driven by Karen Joy Millard.
Singleton had been driving in snow for about 10 minutes before the collision.
Millard's two daughters were in the car with her and one, who was sitting in the back, passenger side seat with a seatbelt on, was rendered a paraplegic.
At issue during a trial in Vancouver before B.C. Supreme Court Justice Neena Sharma was whether Millard was partially responsible for the collision.
Singleton's counsel had submitted Millard was 25 per cent liable, arguing she should have taken action to avoid the collision or lessen its impact when she saw movement in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle on two occasions, just seconds apart.
But in a reasons for judgment given June 9, Sharma emphasized that the black box extracted from Millard's vehicle showed she was travelling at just 50 km/h and it was dark and snowing heavily when her car was struck.
Sharma concluded Millard had no viable way to avoid the collision.
"Coming to a full stop on a rural highway at night when it is snowing heavily and there is low visibility, would have created a dangerous situation," Sharma said.
On that aspect, Sharma noted the driver of a chip truck pulling two trailers was behind Singleton and had to "shoot through the two vehicles" to avoid a collision.
"It is irrelevant whether Ms. Millard knew or checked for traffic behind her; stopping in those conditions does not become safer just because you cannot see a vehicle behind you," Sharma said.
As for pulling off to the side, Sharma found Millard would have been unable to see where the shoulder ended and the incline of the ditch started.
On the question of whether slowing would have lessened the injuries suffered by Millard's daughter, Sharma found the main contributor to the collision's force was the size, weight and speed of Singleton's van.
"This raises the question as to whether any speed under
50 km/h could be both safe (as in not too slow) and have had a noticeable impact on the collision," Sharma added.
Millard and her daughters were living in Terrace at the time.
The judgment did not say where Singleton was living.
