In Lee v. Phan, the Plaintiff was injured as a pedestrian when struck by another vehicle on wintery roads. The Plaintiff had exited the vehicle on the driver’s side in an attempt to retrieve groceries from the car. The Defendant, believing that the Plaintiff may be about to jaywalk, hit the brakes and attempted to swerve and avoid the Plaintiff and her car, but, in so doing, struck the Plaintiff after sliding on wintery roads. The Court did not believe there should be any contributory negligence on the part of the Plaintiff, and found the Defendant fully liable for the accident.
[56] Both parties cited a number of cases involving collisions with pedestrians at crosswalks or collisions where wintery conditions were a significant factor. In view of my finding that Ms. Lee made no attempt to cross Renfrew Street I do not find the crosswalk or jaywalking cases to be particularly helpful. The winter driving cases establish little more than the general proposition that drivers should adjust their driving and use caution appropriate to the conditions.
[64] Mr. Phan testified that he turned his vehicle into the snowbank because he felt this was his only option given his conclusion that Ms. Lee was about to jaywalk in front of him. This, I have found, was an erroneous conclusion. Had he continued straight ahead there would have been no collision. Mr. Phan also seems to have been under the impression that one should never apply the brakes of a vehicle in icy conditions. This is obviously wrong, as the appropriate response is to apply cyclical braking, as confirmed by the plaintiff’s engineer, Mr. Rempel. For all of these reasons I conclude that Mr. Phan was negligent.
[65] As for Ms. Lee, I am unable to accept the defendant’s suggestion that she ought to be found to be contributorily negligent. She was not in a place that posed a hazard or obstruction to traffic, she was wearing a white coat and she was facing in the correct direction towards oncoming traffic. The defendant has not established that Ms. Lee had any realistic opportunity to get out of the way. I see no negligence on her part.