If you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident, yet there never was any impact with the other vehicle, can you sue for damages and be successful ? Depending on the circumstances, yes you can.
In Pang v Dhalla, the Defendant cut sharply into the Plaintiff’s lane, forcing the Plaintiff to stop suddenly. Although there was never any impact, the Court nonetheless awarded damages, commenting that:
[6] The defendant testified that she was stopped on Fir Street behind vehicles making a left turn onto 12th Avenue. She stated in direct examination that she looked at her rear view mirror, signalled, observed a red car stopped, and then proceeded into the curb lane. She did not check her side mirror, the “blind spot”. She did not sense that anything had happened until Ms. Lee motioned for her to pull over. The defendant spoke with the plaintiff and both looked to see whether there had been any damage to the vehicles. There were no marks or damage to the defendant’s vehicle. Although there were scratches to the plaintiff’s vehicle, the conversation proceeded as though they had been there before.
[7] Based upon this evidence, the plaintiff has not proven that there probably was an impact or collision between the vehicles. At best, the plaintiff hard braked to avoid an accident after the defendant turned into his lane. From the actions of the plaintiff in slowing as it became apparent that the defendant was moving her vehicle into his lane and from the evidence of the defendant, I conclude that the defendant signalled her lane change. It cannot be determined that Ms. Lee was in a position to see or not to see a signal.
[8] However, the defendant was negligent in changing lanes before ascertaining that it could be made safely without affecting the travel of another vehicle, in this case, the plaintiff’s vehicle. The defendant had to hard brake to avoid an accident. If the defendant had looked at her blind spot, she would have determined that she could not safely enter the curb lane. Her failure to do so caused the plaintiff to hard brake….