Why Police Don’t Attend Most Accidents

Four people participating in a walk were recently hit by a careless driver. The police statement downplayed the driver’s negligence to mere “impatience.”  https://t.co/qrlatxRNB6. Why would they downplay it?

Well, in 2019, the BC Government passed a regulation saying Police don’t have to bother attending most crashes. It’s obvious that vehicle accidents are no longer taken seriously. It gets worse. If criminal charges are not being considered, these 4 injured people are left with no rights at all – rights to sue, rights to pain and suffering, rights to proper damages for their injuries, nomatter how serious.

How can this be?  Here’s the ugly truth –

BC’s no-fault scheme removed victims’ rights to sue at fault drivers for all crashes after May 1, 2021.  There’s only one exception — criminal drivers. But Section 116(2)(f) of the Insurance (Vehicle) Act carves out this small exception from a very narrow ‘prescribed’ list.  So if you can prove that the driver who injured you was in the process of committing a crime, you can sue them right?  Nope. It takes much more than that, and it’s out of your hands. In order for you to sue, they must be convicted.

This means that:

• After a crash, the police must attend.
• After gathering evidence, the police decide if one of the narrowly-prescribed criminal charges is warranted. In most instances in BC, motorists are charged with a provincial offence rather than a criminal charge, shockingly, even for drunk and drug impaired drivers!
• Crown counsel must then conclude that sufficient evidence exists to approve the prescribed criminal charge.
• No plea bargain to a lesser offence has been reached, as is the case with most provincial offences.
• There must be a criminal conviction at trial.

If only one of these requirements is not met, your rights as an injured victim are wiped out.

And get this – In 2019, the BC Government passed a regulation saying police don’t even have to bother to show up for most crashes.  This is saving ICBC untold millions, but at what cost to us?