Driver found 100 percent responsible for ‘stale yellow’ crash

A driver who collided with a left-turning vehicle at Trevor Wingrove Way in Coquitlam was found 100 percent responsible, after having their case dismissed by the Civil Resolution Tribunal.

In December 2023, Regina Anne Young was heading north on Pinetree Way. Across the intersection, a driver not identified in the CRT judgment was waiting to turn left.

The left turner had paused in the intersection with his blinker on. As the light turned red, the driver started turning left when Young’s vehicle entered the intersection and collided with the car’s rear passenger side.

Young argued she was too close to the intersection to stop safely and that she entered the intersection on a yellow light, not red as stated by ICBC.

Young and the owner of the car, Scott Trevor Young, argued ICBC acted “unreasonably and improperly” by finding Young 100 percent responsible.

Young’s car wasn’t insured at the time of the crash, which he argued led to “procedural unfairness” as ICBC told him he wasn’t entitled to an internal review of its decision.

However, before addressing whether ICBC acted unreasonably, the applicants had to prove Young was not 100 percent responsible for the crash.

After assessing dashcam footage, Civil Resolution Tribunal member Deanna Rivers determined Young entered the intersection on a “stale yellow.”

However, the driver turning left didn’t cross the oncoming lanes until the light had switched to red, Rivers determined.

“Where a left-turning driver begins a turn on a stale yellow or red light, the straight through driver is generally entirely at fault,” Rivers wrote.

In that instance, the left-turned was: “entitled to assume Mrs. Young would stop.”

Rivers dismissed Young’s claims and ordered the applicants to reimburse ICBC for $25 of CRT fees.