ICBC lawsuit: Woman awarded damages without name of driver who hit her

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The first thing to do after a vehicle collision is to exchange details with the other driver. But Kimberly Bui found out the hard way what happens if you don’t.

Bui was rear-ended by a pickup on Dec. 6, 2017, but because of a decision by a co-worker and Bui’s confused state after being hit, the driver left without exchanging details, according to reasons for judgment in B.C. Supreme Court.

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That left Bui having to return to the scene to search for possible witnesses, checking area Starbucks where she was told the driver worked, putting up posters and posting a newspaper announcement seeking a witness, and searching the internet for the licence plate number she thought she saw at the time.

But the driver was never found, wrote Justice Maria Morellato, and Bui had named John Doe 1, John Doe 2 and ICBC in lieu of the driver in her notice of civil claim for damages.

The case was tried in September and the parties agreed on damages, the amount of which wasn’t disclosed in the judgment.

But to conclude the case, Morellato was required to determine if Bui had made all reasonable efforts to identify the other driver.

Morellato concluded Bui had, and was entitled to pursue a claim against ICBC as a nominal defendant.

On the morning of the crash Bui was returning a rental car belonging to her employer, Hertz Car Rental, to the company’s location when she was hit by a man driving a pickup.

She had slowed for traffic and saw in her rearview mirror a driver with his head down “as if he was texting” before she was hit, the force of which pushed the vehicle ahead about three car lengths, the judgment said.

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She described the sensation like a “ride at the PNE,” followed by shock and panic, a feeling of being “frazzled.” She realized later she likely had a panic attack, Morellato wrote.

A Hertz assistant manager named only as Mr. Liu, who was driving in front of her and had pulled over, instructed her to stay in her vehicle, saying he would take care of everything.

She eventually got out of her car and could hear the driver ask if they should exchange contact information and the assistant manager declined.

After trying to intervene but deferring to her superior’s handling of the situation, she returned to her car but panicked when she saw the driver leaving. She grabbed her phone to call her partner, yelling at him to write down the numbers she was calling out.

She was cross-examined at length by ICBC lawyers who questioned why she hadn’t made an attempt to get the driver’s contact info.

A week after the accident, Bui and her partner went to the scene to see if they could see a similar truck. Bui boarded buses to ask drivers and passengers if they saw anything on the day of the crash, and later went to area Starbucks looking for the driver.

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Morellato said Bui “satisfied the requirements” of the law and made all reasonable efforts to try to find the driver.

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