A driver who believed a motorcyclist was a demon, and so he ran into him with his car on the Lions Gate Bridge, has been told to pay more than $400,000 in damages for his injuries. Read More
ICBC argued driver shouldn’t be held responsible because of unexpected psychiatric condition, but courts ruled, like drunk driver, he made decision to drive despite hallucinations.
ICBC argued driver shouldn’t be held responsible because of unexpected psychiatric condition, but courts ruled, like drunk driver, he made decision to drive despite hallucinations.
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A driver who believed a motorcyclist was a demon, and so he ran into him with his car on the Lions Gate Bridge, has been told to pay more than $400,000 in damages for his injuries.
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At issue was whether the driver, who was going 60 km/h on Sept. 26, 2018, was liable for the injury despite his psychosis at the time, according to a judgment in B.C. Supreme Court.
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A publication ban prohibits identifying the driver and the plaintiff, D.W.P., because “sensitive personal medical information” would cause an “affront to their dignity and strike at the core of their privacy.”
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In the driver’s case it was his psychiatric conditions and for D.W.P, it was urological conditions,.
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Justice David Crerar determined through the 13-day trial that the driver was liable for negligence for the crash even though his Insurance Corp. of B.C.-appointed lawyers argued he should not be.
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A psychiatrist, Dr. Eugene Okorie, diagnosed the driver with suffering from a brief psychotic disorder, which included seeing and hearing demons and acting and speaking nonsensically, including needing to get to Stanley Park to touch the water to save himself from demons and driving his car into the plaintiff and his friend, who was on another separate motorcycle.
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Okorie concluded the beliefs and actions were caused by his condition and were not rational decisions, such as believing he was helping others by driving the demons off the road, and he “lacked control over his actions,” according to the judgment.
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D.W.P.’s lawyer argued the driver had sufficient consciousness and control in the three days before the accident to have known that he was unwell and shouldn’t have been driving when he knew he had had no sleep, food or water for some time.
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Crerar agreed, ruling the driver’s lawyers didn’t establish he wasn’t capable of foreseeing that, by driving, he would pose a risk of harm to others. He said the liability is similar to that of a drunk or exhausted driver or one suffering from a debilitating physical condition, like an impending stroke or heart attack or diabetic low blood sugar, who drives and crashes.
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“Courts have found drivers negligent where they elected to drive” under those conditions, he said.
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He said the driver didn’t have a known history of mental illness, but he had three days of increasing paranoia and erratic behaviour and showed some lucidity, self-awareness and control over his actions before the crash.
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Crerar also found the driver liable under the intentional tort of battery, addressing his lawyers’ arguments that in his mind he was trying not to stop humans but “demonic entities” in self-defence.
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The judge noted the driver in hospital later said he had hit “two people on motorcycles as he felt they had demon spirits.”