A malfunctioning traffic light was reported to the RCMP hours before the car crash
The BC Court of Appeal apportions liability to the communications center responsible for emergency call management for a serious traffic accident at a malfunctioning traffic light intersection near Mission, BC.
The court’s ruling in Emil Anderson Maintenance Co. Ltd. v. Taylor, 2024 BCCA 156 confirmed the liabilities assigned by the trial court among various parties, including the driver, a road maintenance contractor, and the government communications center responsible for emergency call management.
The accident involved Barbara McNally, who was fatally injured when her vehicle was struck by a speeding truck driven by Judson Sleeman at the intersection of Nelson Street and Lougheed Highway. The traffic lights at the intersection had been non-operational for hours before the crash, a condition reported to the RCMP Operational Communications Centre (OCC) but not adequately addressed.
The trial judge had determined multiple failures contributed to the tragic event. Key among these was the OCC's inadequate response to two separate calls warning of the dangerous situation. The court noted that the OCC, managed by the Attorney General of Canada (AGC), did not follow its standard operating procedures, which would have likely prevented the accident by alerting traffic control and the necessary maintenance contractors sooner.
Additionally, Emil Anderson Maintenance Co. Ltd., the contractor responsible for the highway’s upkeep, was found liable for not taking immediate action despite their employee observing the outage twice before the accident. The employee's failure to set up temporary traffic control measures or signal the situation's urgency contributed to the unresolved hazardous conditions.
The appellate decision delved deeply into the original findings, addressing each point raised in the appeals by the AGC and Emil Anderson Maintenance. It affirmed that the OCC call-takers and dispatchers had indeed failed to act promptly and effectively upon receiving reports of the traffic light failure. Their lack of action, combined with Emil's inaction, created a scenario ripe for the eventual accident.
The court dismissed the AGC’s arguments that the trial judge had improperly assigned the duty of care and causation, emphasizing that the OCC's failure to communicate the severity of the situation to both police and road maintenance authorities directly influenced the occurrence of the accident. Emil's disregard for the urgent need for traffic control at the malfunctioning intersection showed a clear breach of road maintenance contractors' expected standard of care.
The Court of Appeal's judgment reasserted the trial judge’s liability apportionment—40 percent to the AGC for the OCC's role, 25 percent to Emil Anderson Maintenance, 25 percent to Judson Sleeman for speeding, and 10 percent to the deceased for her decision to enter the highway under risky conditions.
