Under Section 24 of the Insurance (Motor Vehicle) Act, ICBC is required to compensate you for death or injury or for damage to a vehicle even if the at-fault motorist is unknown.
In terms of vehicle damage, it is simply a matter of making a claim to dial-a-claim and then bringing your vehicle in to ICBC for inspection. ICBC has put a policy in place whereby only certain claim centres inspect vehicles involved in hit-and-run accidents. The local police force may be present at the claims centre so as to keep motorists “honest”. Therefore, the best thing to do is not try to get ICBC to cover vehicle damage which is not truly caused by another motorist who you are not able to determine the identity of. Don’t try to “pull one over” on ICBC as you may be charged with fraud criminally.
As to a bodily injury or death claim, although ICBC has to cover these losses, the current law requires that you take all reasonable steps to identify the at-fault vehicle and its driver. The reason being, in order to succeed in a hit-and-run claim, you must show that the identity of the driver and the vehicle involved in the accident was not ascertainable.
Section 24 provides clear reporting requirements. One reporting requirement is that you give written notice to ICBC of the accident as reasonably practicable as possible, but no later than six months after the accident. The courts have gone on to interpret this provision as requiring a motorist to give ICBC notice within days of the accident unless for some reason your injuries preclude you from doing so.
In addition to providing early reporting to ICBC about a hit-and-run accident, you actually have to take steps to determine the identity of the at-fault motorist and the vehicle involved in the accident. Section 24 (5) provides that:
(5) In an action against the corporation as nominal defendant, a judgment against the corporation must not be given unless the court is satisfied that:
(a) all reasonable efforts have been made by the parties to ascertain the identity of the unknown owner and driver or unknown driver, as the case may be, and
(b) the identity of those persons or that person, as the case may be, is not ascertainable.
The courts have interpreted this subsection to mean that basically you have to take some positive steps to identify the identity of the vehicle and driver.
Therefore, at a very minimum you should take the following steps:
- Place a sign at the accident scene looking for witnesses.
- Place an advertisement in the local newspaper looking for witnesses.
- Notify the police within hours of the accident, if possible.
- Notify ICBC within hours of the accident, if possible; and
- If the accident occurred nearby to some buildings, knock on some doors to see if there are any witnesses.
In other words, you are really asked to play detective so that ICBC cannot turn around later and argue that had you taken certain steps you may have been able to identify the driver and vehicle involved in the accident.
Assuming that you meet the initial threshold test, what happens is you pursue ICBC for payment of damages. If it is necessary to start a lawsuit you sue ICBC as a nominal defendant. If the identity of the vehicle and driver becomes known later, you amend the lawsuit so that you sue the owner and operator of that vehicle.
Like other ICBC cases, all defenses open to ICBC are also available in a hit-and-run claim including arguing liability even though the other motorist involved in the accident is not available to testify at trial.
Whenever you are involved in an accident where you cannot identify the driver or owner of a vehicle, it’s very important to make an early reporting to ICBC and the police. You also have to take positive steps to try and identify the vehicle and the driver of the other vehicle because if you do not, you will not have a claim against ICBC.
