What’s Up With the Right-Hand-Drive?

Until recently, the only right-hand-drive (RHD) cars seen in Canada were vintage versions of British imports like MGs, Morrises, Austins and Hillmans. But RHD cars are growing in popularity here, with ICBC reporting that some 200 of these vehicles are imported into British Columbia every month, mostly from Japan.

So, why the popularity and why Japan? The primary driver for their popularity is price; with vehicles often costing thousands of dollars less than a comparable local car. But there are other reasons, including the uniqueness or cool factor as they garner high looky-loo appeal. As for importing RHDs from Japan, it’s all about safety. In Japan, all cars must undergo an expensive and extensive inspection every two years and while most of the RHD imports are 15 years and older — that’s because Canadian laws place restrictions on newer imported cars — the average odometer reading is very low at between 75,000 and 125,000 kilometres.

As long as the vehicles meet provincial standards and pass a BC safety inspection, RHD cars can be licensed and insured. But a recent study by ICBC casts some doubt on the safety of operating a right-hand-drive vehicle on right-hand-traffic roads. According to the study, RHD vehicles are 40 per cent more likely to get into a crash than a similar left-hand-drive vehicle. Furthermore, researchers found that the average time for a crash to occur after an owner first purchased an RHD vehicle was 223 days, 68 per cent sooner than the 705 days for a LHD vehicle.

Although there was no evidence in the study that suggested RHD vehicles offer less protection in a crash than built-for-Canada vehicles of similar age, BC officials have asked Transport Canada to increase the restriction period on import vehicles from 15 to 25 years, in an attempt to reduce the number of RHD vehicles entering the province.

There is no extra insurance premium for driving an RHD vehicle. However, ICBC is warning potential purchasers that they present greater risk, citing increased difficulty in seeing oncoming traffic when making a left turn and similar challenges when pulling away from the curb.

The Perils of a Messy Car

I remember reading a few years ago about a woman in Edmonton who was in a car crash while driving home from the grocery store. She had just purchased a frozen turkey for her family’s Thanksgiving dinner and placed it in the back seat of the car.
While the crash itself was not serious, the woman sustained major injuries because the frozen turkey flew off the back seat and whacked her in the head.

While this story provides some dark humour, loose objects in a moving vehicle can result in serious injury which is no laughing matter. By applying some common sense about loading and storing objects in your car, you can avoid creating potentially lethal missiles powered by sharp turns or abrupt breaking.

Always keep the interior or your car neat and organized. Store large objects, such as luggage and bags of groceries, in the trunk of the car. If you must use the back seat, ensure that the maximum amount of the object’s surface area makes contact with the seat by wedging it for a secure fit.

Never store loose objects on the dashboard or centre console. Items such as CD cases, loose change and mobile devices should be placed in the car’s proper storage compartments to avoid distractions caused by flying objects when turning corners or quick stops.

Check your floor space to ensure there are no objects on the driver’s side that can cause a pedal jam and inhibit you from keeping control of the vehicle. Ensure floor mats are properly placed so they don’t inch forward every time you get into your car.

When quaffing a coffee or other beverage, use the built-in drink holders instead of holding the cup in your hand or resting it between your legs. Also, while it may be convenient to place a handbag or brief case on the passenger’s seat for easy access, you shouldn’t be distracted by fumbling around for an item while driving. This is a tough one; keep those briefcases and handbags in a place where you will need to stop the car to retrieve what you need.

As demonstrated in the story about the woman driving home with her Thanksgiving turkey, even a small accident can cause objects to transform into lethal projectiles and result in serious injury or death.

Are you Ready to put Down the Phone? BC Legislates a Cell Phone Ban

“Hey, what are you doing? Do you want me to call you back?” “No, its no big deal, I am just driving.”

This describes the busy lives of so many of us. What makes us think we will not be one of the careless drivers? Is it human nature to take risks? How about the lives of families who have changed in that one moment when a serious car crash has injured or killed a loved one? Was it really important to make dinner reservations while driving? It should be common sense not to take these kind of risks.

These actions are conducted everyday, by thousands of drivers. Reflect on the research:

• On average, about 117 people die each year in British Columbia and approximately 1400 are sent to the hospital because of driver distraction.
• Drivers who text spend 400 per cent more time with their eyes off the road than a normal motorist.
• People who talk on a phone while driving are four times more likely to crash.

But in our society it takes legislation to make people personally responsible for their actions and the safety of others.

On January 1, 2010 BC motorists will be legislated to put down the phone, the blackberry, portable games and MP3 players. Adult drivers will still have the privilege of using “hands-free” devices, such as earpieces and speakerphones. To dial a number you must use verbal or one-touch dialing. New drivers, however, will be banned from using phones or sending messages, even with a hands-free device.

Drivers caught texting or e-mailing will be fined $167.00 after February 1, 2010 and have three penalty points added to their licences. New drivers who violate any part of the rules will receive three points. To continue driving, people who accumulate more than three points must pay a penalty points premium to ICBC.

This is a good time to take a stock of your driving habits. What else do you do that is distracting? It can be the simple things like referring your kids argument, eating a sandwich, spilling your hot coffee, applying lipstick, or worse reading or checking your computer. Take on your own responsibility for your actions. Become an engaged defensive driver. Be safe, arrive alive.

If you or someone you know has been injured due to the carelessness of others while operating a motor vehicle, call Klein Lyons for a free consultation on your rights to compensation.

What, When & How Your Social Media Can be Used in a Court of Law

Careful what you put on your Facebook pages – your boss might be reading! Remember those party pictures? How about that time you were “in drag” for Halloween? And should you really leave those rude comments up by your former college buddy on your wall?

Let’s face it – we’ve all made mistakes online. Luckily though, that’s pretty easy to fix.

Or is it?

Deleting something does not make it go away forever. The data can still be retrieved and or analyzed, your activities can be tracked by anybody with expertise who examines your computer. Even logging into your Facebook pages can be tracked.

Now, why would such a thing ever happen? You’d be surprised.

If you sue somebody for injuries, you may have to hand over your family’s computer. Sound crazy? It’s not. On March 5, 2009, a judge in Cranbrook, BC ordered a person who’d suffered a brain injury in a car accident, to turn over the family PC’s hard drive.

The reason? The defence wanted to see how much time the plaintiff spent online between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. each night. This case raises a lot of interesting issues. When you start a lawsuit, have you completely given up your right to privacy? The reported legal cases have been struggling with this issue for a long time. The internet has now added a brand new dimension to this question. Is everything you do online subject to scrutiny? Based on this latest court decision, it looks like the answer to that is “yes”.

During any lawsuit, all parties must reveal their evidence before trial. The lawyers often grapple before trial with the issue of which documents are relevant. A party can’t be forced to produce thousands of pages which only “might” be relevant (too much time and expense), and neither can they be forced to break a confidential relationship or disclose highly embarrassing, personal information

In this case, which is fast becoming known in the legal world as “The Facebook decision”, the defendant asked the court to allow them to retrieve records of when the plaintiff logged into and out of Facebook each night. He has claimed that he can’t work due to fatigue.

The defendant argued that examining the Facebook login/logout records may yield evidence of the plaintiff’s sleeping patterns and this information, they said, would relate to his fatigue and his ability to work. Arguably, if he is contributing to his own fatigue by staying up all night on Facebook, then the defendant could rely on this information to deny or reduce the claim.

The courts have been asked to decide on this issue before. In one case, the judge held that “the request for private emails and internet searches was held to be a fishing expedition and, as the groundwork was not laid down to show that there were fish worth catching, was dismissed.”

This was a very important decision, since it gives us a hint of how the courts will deal with the relatively new world of cyberspace. So beware – your every move on the internet might actually turn out to be evidence in court one day.