“Accident Resulting In Careless Driving Charge”

Hello

My dad got into a bad accident on a provincial highway (80kph limit).

He said he noticed that his truck was going off the road and he had to correct it, but when he went into a turn, he lost control over it and hit another car almost head on.

He was charged with careless driving, I spoke with his insurance broker, and she said the charge can be fought off if there is evidence provided that it was a mechanical fault via an engineering report. Another source told me that 2 such reports would be required.

How would I go about finding out, what kind and how many of such reports I would need to produce before a judge to get the charge dropped?

My dad has a perfect driving record, I'd like to keep it that way for him, the truck was old and just went over 300,000km.

The mechanic who towed it said it looks like the wheel came off the truck causing the accident.

Thank you

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Might be a good idea to consult with a paralegal for advice. I can't speak from experience, but I think it might be a somewhat expensive undertaking. I don't see why you'd require two reports if the expert is qualified to conduct such inspections. The problem is that if it goes to trial, you'd be responsible for whatever fees your expert witness charges to testify.

And just FYI, if the wheel did come off, your father is guilty of a different offence. Section 84.1 of the HTA states the driver AND owner are guilty of an offence is the wheel becomes detached while in operation. It's an absolute liability offence, meaning you can't argue due diligence (i.e. regularly checking the wheel, etc.)

Hi Stanton

Thanks for your response.

I was able to obtain an engineering report from the mechanic who towed the truck to his shop, he works with the OPP in his area as a 24/7 tow truck driver.

The wheel did not come detached entirely, it was one of the ball joints that broke causing the truck to go where it wanted as opposed to where my dad wanted it to, of course, after the accident, there was only a single wheel attached to the truck.

I'm consulting around to see what options I have at this time to help my dad with this.

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