A delivery driver's responsibility for a Burnaby crash went from 100 per cent to zero per cent after he appealed his ICBC assessment to the B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal.
On June 1, 2022, a delivery truck hit a Mercedes as both vehicles were turning right out of the Harmony Court parking lot at 7197 Canada Way, according to a tribunal ruling last week.
'Lots' of large trucks exiting parking lot
Delivery driver Vinod Goundar said police called his company two weeks later saying one of the company vehicles might have been in an accident, the ruling said.
Police said the Harmony Court receiving department had listed Goundar's vehicle as one of the delivery trucks at the care home on the day of the accident, and Goundar said an officer told him to call ICBC to make a report.
In his ICBC report, Goundar said his truck has to take up the whole driveway when he makes a right turn and that the police had told him he hit the Mercedes.
Two days later, however, he told ICBC he didn't see another vehicle when he was at the care home that day and was not aware of any impact, according to the ruling.
And police told ICBC a witness had said there were "lots" of large trucks exiting the parking lot, according to the ruling.
Goundar said there was no damage to his vehicle and asked to bring it in for inspection, but ICBC never inspected it, the ruling said.
Then, based only on 22 photos Goundar had sent to ICBC, none of which showed any damage to his truck, an ICBC material damage estimator concluded the damage to the Mercedes appeared consistent with Goundar’s truck tire hitting it because of the height and nature of the damage.
ICBC found Goundar 100 per cent responsible for the crash.
'No evidence'
In a Feb. 14 ruling, however, tribunal member Deanna Rivers concluded ICBC had acted "improperly and unreasonably" in holding him responsible.
"None of the evidence identifies Mr. Goundar or his vehicle as the other vehicle in the accident," Rivers said in the ruling.
She said the ICBC estimator’s conclusion confirmed only that the damage to the Mercedes was consistent with a large truck hitting it, not specifically Goundar’s truck.
She noted there was no video evidence and no witnesses identified Goundar or his vehicle as being involved in the crash.
Finally, ICBC said RCMP captured Goundar's licence number at the scene, but Rivers pointed out ICBC didn't say how it was captured since it wasn't reported by a witness and the RCMP file was not obtained.
"There is no evidence that Mr. Goundar's vehicle was involved in the accident," Rivers wrote. "As there is no evidence provided that identifies Mr. Goundar's vehicle as the second vehicle in the accident, I find that he is not responsible for it."
Rivers ordered ICBC to pay Goundar’s tribunal fees and change its assessment to show him zero per cent responsible for the crash.
The CRT is an online, quasi-judicial tribunal that hears small claims cases and strata property disputes.
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