Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.
VANCOUVER – Family members say Annie Kong wanted nothing more than to gather with all her extended family under one roof at her West Vancouver home for Christmas 2022.
“She talked about it all year,” said Nigel Kong, Annie’s son from Denmark, adding that her sister, Joanna Moy, also planned to bring her family from Chicago for the celebration.
“We can all be together, in what would have been our home that we grew up in in Vancouver, where the four of us (there) would now be the extended family, the whole brood .”
Annie Kong would never get that wish.
She was one of two people killed when a vehicle crashed into a wedding from a driveway shared between two homes in West Vancouver on August 20, 2022, with many others badly injured.
The family says their grief has been compounded by BC’s no-fault insurance system, which not only limited the Kongs’ lump sum compensation in Annie’s death but also limited the family’s rights to seek additional liability through lawsuits.
The issue of no-fault insurance has drawn debate from the major parties ahead of this fall’s provincial election, with the BC Conservatives promising exceptions to the rule that prevents families from suing for compensation in most cases, while the BC New Democrats says the switch to no-fault brought BC’s public auto insurer “back in the black” after years of defects that cost residents higher premiums.
No-fault insurance was introduced at the Crown-owned BC Insurance Corporation in May 2021 as a way to reduce rates, reduce debt, limit legal costs and improve care for accident victims.
The NDP government said the move worked, announcing in May that the financial improvement at ICBC means drivers will get an insurance rebate of $110 this year, while basic renewal rates will remain frozen until at least March 2026.
“Under this model, a catastrophically injured person has access to care and rehabilitation benefits, and does not have to wait years for a court settlement that may fall short of their care needs,” he said. a written statement from ICBC.
The insurance provider also said that “drivers who cause accidents or drive dangerously will still be held accountable” because “they will continue to pay more for their insurance.”
“If criminal charges are laid and a driver is convicted, victims and their families have the right to sue that driver in a civil claim for specific damages,” ICBC said.
But lawyers say the system also prevents victims of car accidents from suing the at-fault driver unless the case involves a crime, and people who have Disputes about compensation go through the Civil Settlement Tribunal.
BC Trial Lawyers Association president Michael Elliott said that while insurance officials have promised “potentially serious consequences” for drivers convicted of a criminal offense in a case, it’s “misleading” to present that as an opportunity for victims trying to turn beyond no fault insurance.
“What people didn’t understand and now understand is that criminal convictions for driving offenses are extremely rare,” Elliott said. “Most offenses (plead) down … (and) are categorized under the Motor Vehicle Act, not as a crime, and therefore there are very few criminal convictions for driving offenses in our state.”
That was the case with Kong’s death, where Hong Xu of West Vancouver, BC, faces sentencing in North Vancouver Provincial Court on Monday for driving a motor vehicle without due care and attention, a provincial Motor Vehicle Act offense that carries a minimum. a fine of $100.
Liong Kong, Annie Kong’s husband, was at the wedding where his wife died and witnessed the accident.
“I held her in my arms,” he said. “She bled to death while I was holding her.
“So, one message I would like the public to know is that when you get the $100 a year refund (from ICBC), it’s at the expense of the victims and the families of the victims,” he said.
The Kongs said ICBC took little input from family members when deciding on lump sum compensation, which Moy described as barely covering what they had to deal with over the loss of a matriarch.
“We are placed under this no-fault legislation, which essentially means there is no liability for this accident,” Moy said. “And with that, we had to sit with the ICBC claims adjuster. They look up mum’s ‘life value’ on a graph on a table, and because she’s a homemaker with no financial trappings, no big CEO title to her name, then it’s calculated at a very nominal cost.
“We are not seeking millions of dollars. Our story is, the rights of the families and the ability to turn back — because of this blameless legislation — have been completely taken away from us. We are at the mercy of the Crown and the laws and ICBC for justice for our mother.”
West Vancouver police said in August 2023 that “Crown Counsel has made a decision on the appropriate charge given the evidence and circumstances of the incident.”
The BC Prosecution Service said in a statement that Crown counsel “exercise their professional judgment and prosecutorial discretion” to decide what offenses they can prove, as well as the public interest in deciding whether a case is processed under the Act Motor Vehicles or as an offender. a crime.
Nigel Kong said the explanation does not give his family comfort.
“My mother wasn’t the only one who died,” she said. “She and another died. Seven people were injured, some seriously. He was in a wedding. And for some reason—where I can’t even begin to comprehend or match—it was a charge of careless driving that was responsible.
“Once again, two dead, seven seriously injured, this mass destruction, the hysteria and chaos, and we basically came to a ticket.”
BC Conservative Leader John Rustad said in a policy statement in December that “victims who suffer life-changing injuries in motor vehicle accidents” should be exempt from the no-fault regime and given the right to “pursue fair and reasonable compensation in the British Columbia court system.”
In May, the BC New Democrats issued a statement criticizing Rustad’s stance, citing changes, including no-fault insurance, that allowed ICBC to lower rates by 20 per cent in 2021 and then freeze them for six years.
“Imagine being against a rate freeze and driver rebate at a time like this, when people need help with costs,” said Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth in a tweet responding to Rustad on May 8.
Elliott, with the trial lawyers group, said his affiliation was non-partisan but that he had been strongly against the no-fault system since its introduction.
He said his group is seeing more cases from people injured in accidents seeking compensation but running into an ICBC system he called “incredibly complicated” without the help of lawyers.
“The experience has been a disaster for any British Columbian injured in a motor vehicle accident in this province,” Elliott said. “Our organization receives dozens, if not hundreds of calls every month from people who are abused by ICBC, only now under no-fault insurance they have no means to find fair justice or fair compensation for their injuries.”
Liong Kong said his wife’s death had drained the color from his life.
“When I talk to friends or other people who have reached out to me from other countries, they say, ‘What country do you live in, to have this kind of law that you have no legal redress, you can’t voice anything . at all, and your life is fixed according to a schedule? What kind of law is that?’”
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on September 15, 2024.
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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