[bob.g]

my friend like an idiot change lanes on a solid line, and didnt seet he car next to him (he swears he didnt see it, car was white, the surroundings were white from all the snow, so i beleive him..hes not one to lie).

Anyway, probelm is, the girl driver next to him panicked. As he was changing lanes, rather then honk, or slow down, she just kept moving further off the road, into the grass, and onto the siderail. When he checked his rearview he saw a car smashing into the siderail and thought "wtf, did i just cause that?!". So he parked, walked back, girl was shaking, so he called the cops.

he got a ticket for 300$ for the solid line and another ticket of 600 or 900 i cant remember, for "putting someones life in danger". The cop didnt ask him anything, he just heard whatever the girl had to say, walked back to his car and gave him 2 tickets. My friend isnt upset with the tickets, he knows its his fault regardless of whether the girl could of reacted differently (like honk, or slam the breaks).


but listening to his story got me to wondering:
1) shouldnt a cop listen to both sides of the story?

2) does every accident get that 600-900$ ticket of putting someones life in danger? i assume it does but ive never been in an accident so i dont know. I would think so, since every time u cause an accident, your putting someones life at risk.

3) does insurance go up on his part? his car was undamaged.. he never actually hit her. But his switching lanes did cause her to panic and driver herself off the road....so im guessing his insurance has to pay?

[bdardashti]

Glad everyones okay. As for your questions,

1) Yes, but wouldn't his side of the story have been the same since he agrees it was his mistake?

2) Not sure, but I don't think so. Maybe this is only for times when you aren't actually in an accident, but (helped) cause it?

3) I'm not sure if his insurance would pay for the girl's car's damage, but either way, his insurance is very likely to go up because of the tickets.

[bunnn]

Not sure about Montreal, but in Ontario..I believe the policy is "no-fault" insurance...

Simply, you ask your insurance company to fix your car, and then they go after the insurance of the person who was at-fault for the accident... from then on it's up to either party to prove/disprove the claim.

As for insurance, any sort of moving violation is deemed to have an effect on your insurance. Something this big would be pretty big on his insurance, actually.

[bob.g]

thanks guys

[w2]

1) Whether or not the cop should have talked to your friend, a police officer isn's required to talk to anyone before laying charges: he just needs reasonable grounds to believe that an offence was committed. Your friend will be allowed to defend himself in court. In general, it's a bad idea to talk to the police anyway, since anything you say can and will be used against you but never in favour of you. The officer at the scene is only trying to do two things: decide if charges are warranted, and trying to elicit some sort of confession or other statement that can later be used as evidence. You defend yourself in court, not on the street.

2) Innocent people can be charged, so no, getting a ticket doesn't automatically mean you've put someone's life in danger, unless you take the view that the mere act of driving a 1.5 ton car on a public road is inherently risky and therefore every driver puts others' lives in danger all the time.

3) I don't know what Quebec law says, but my guess is that if he didn't actually hit anyone, he's not involved in an accident. If Quebec has no-fault insurance, each driver's insurance company pays for damage to their own cars. But two traffic convictions will probably make his insurance rates go up.

The whole thing sounds serious enough that he might want to get some professional counsel. Not necessarily a lawyer, but someone with proper legal expertise in this area.

[JohnnyCanuck]

IIRC, Quebec has no fault for injury damages only, not material damage. That's the case in most provinces (either tort, no-fault/tort, or no-fault ... I can't think of a jurisdiction that is actual no fault for MD). In other words, although her insurance company will pay for the damage to her vehicle, they will be coming after his insurance company to subrogate the loss which will affect his rates.

Here's the deal: if his lane change posed an immediate hazard to her, it is completely irrelevant whether her reaction was faulty or not. He's legally liable for her accident and hence his insurer will pay the subrogated claim from her insurer. That she reacted poorly to an immediate hazard does not change the proximate cause of the accident ... his lane change.

[montreal red]

i agree with most of what others have said here. the two tickets will make his insurance go up. so if i were him, i'd contest both the tickets. he might just get 1 ticket for the illegal lane change and the other ticket might be dropped by the judge. after all, he wasnt involved in an accident.

[UltraRacer13]

Not from your area- just lurking on your thread. But doesn't it seem like the cop should go easy on your friend? After all 95% of the people in his place would have just hauled ass. Kudos to him for doing the right thing!

[JohnnyCanuck]

Originally Posted by montreal red

i agree with most of what others have said here. the two tickets will make his insurance go up. so if i were him, i'd contest both the tickets. he might just get 1 ticket for the illegal lane change and the other ticket might be dropped by the judge. after all, he wasnt involved in an accident.

The tickets aren't the only factor to consider.

He was involved. By the simple fact he was ticketed, the claims adjuster for her insurer knows that there's a case to be made that he posed an immediate hazard and his negligence was the proximate cause for the accident. They will subrogate and if his insurer pays out the subrogated interest, his rates will be affected.

[montreal red]

Originally Posted by JohnnyCanuck

The tickets aren't the only factor to consider.

He was involved. By the simple fact he was ticketed, the claims adjuster for her insurer knows that there's a case to be made that he posed an immediate hazard and his negligence was the proximate cause for the accident. They will subrogate and if his insurer pays out the subrogated interest, his rates will be affected.

yup i think youre right. it kind of sucks that this guy stopped and he's going to get ass raped by the insurance and the police... i am not surprised that most people would just drive away in a situation like this and pretend they didnt see what happened behind them or beside them.

[gunsekun]

what a jerk... but he is lucky that is not his fault since there was no contact between cars