Driver who wrecked his brakes to avoid clobbering a moose wins ICBC battle

Hurtling toward a burlymoose on a remote stretch ofhighway in northern B.C., Ronald Driedger did what any driver with enough time would do: he slammed his brakes to the floor.

It wrecked his brakes, but took the edge off what could have been a deadlycollision: Driedgerdid hit the moose, but both driver and animal survived.

What followed was a year-long battle between Driedger and theInsurance Corporation of B.C. (ICBC) over the cost of the $1,700 brake repair.

Driedger argued he was covered, ICBCsaid he wasn't.

After a flurry of emails and one showdown in B.C.'s Civil Resolution Tribunal, Driedger won.

Brakes couldn't stop car 'creeping forward' after crash

A ruling posted online Tuesday said Driedgersaw the moose along a highway near Smithers, B.C., northwest of Prince George, late in the evening onAug. 3, 2018. The decision didn't say how fast Driedgerwas going when his car hit the moose.

The animal survived andran off. The 2008 Mazda 3 was still driveable butleft with minor body damage, so Driedgerfiled a claim with ICBC.

"Over the next two days, he noticed his brakes were 'soft.' He had to pump the brakes repeatedly to stop fully. When the vehicle was stopped but in gear, the brakes could not keep the car from creeping forward," the ruling read.

Driedger called ICBCfour days after the crashto add brakes to his claim for the body damage.

The insurer denied his brake claim more than a week later, saying he hadn't provedthe damage was caused by anything other than wear and tear which isn't covered.

An estimator said the likely reason for the brake problem was that the master cylinder had failed. The cylinder creates the pressure that feeds brake fluid into the brake circuit.

An ICBC employeetold Driedgermaster cylinders "rarely fail even under abusive driving conditions."

"[The worker] concluded that 'one simplepanic stop should under no circumstances result in brake system damage.' In other words, [the worker] did not believe that the hard braking before the collision caused the brake problem," the ruling read.

Driedgerappealed with ICBCand theissue then went to another committee within the insurer. That committeesaid the issue wasn't with the master cylinder, but with a pre-existing fault that meant the brakes would have eventually failed under hard braking even if Driedger didn't know about it.

Again, Driedger's claim was denied. He filed a claim with the CRT, which handles small claim disputes in B.C.

ICBC asked for the claim to be dismissed, sayingDriedger hadn't provedthe moose crash caused the brake failure. The tribunal sided with Driedger.

"The brakes were damaged very close in time to the collision and in the same sequence of events. I find that whether there was a pre-existing issue with the brakes, as ICBC alleges, is not relevant," wrote tribunal member Eric Regehr.

Regehr ordered the insurer to pay Driedger more than $1,900 in compensation.More than $1,700 was awarded to cover the brake repair, as well as additional reimbursement for interest and tribunal fees.

ICBC handled an average 2,900 crashes involving animals in the north central Interior of B.C. between 2013 and 2017.

The Wildlife Collision Prevention Program in B.C. says more than10,000 wildlife vehicle collisions happen every year in the province, resulting in approximately570 personal injuries and three deaths.