Court awards $1.8M to motorcyclist hit head-on who will never work again

An active, healthy, animal-loving B.C. woman who will never work again after being hit head-on by a car on a windy road while riding a motorcycle has been awarded $1.8 million in damages in a B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit.

Included in the award for damages in the 2018 crash that left Carrie Michael, 54, with severe, lasting physical and psychological injuries and ended her chance to work her final years before retirement, was about $1 million for lost earnings.

Justice Matthew Kirchner also awarded her more than $400,000 for cost of future care and $350,000 for pain and suffering, according to a reasons for judgment released this week after a 10-day trial in February in Vancouver.

“Ms. Michael was in a serious and traumatizing accident that caused her significant, permanent physical and psychological injuries,” wrote Kirchner.

She was riding her motorcycle on Highway 3 east of Osoyoos on a switchback highway when a car crossed the centre line and hit her, he said.

The head-on collision “while she was in the vulnerable and exposed position of being on a motorcycle” was severe and “she cannot fall asleep at night without envisioning the accident,” he said.

The former marathon runner and hiker has had surgeries for a broken hip and knee, a hip replacement and suffers chronic pain, he wrote. Michael has progressed from using a wheelchair, but her physical disabilities are permanent and she continues to use a cane, he said.

The hip pain and her post-traumatic stress disorder will prevent her from ever working again, the judge said.

Michael had worked at a vet's clinic in her adopted town of Penticton and planned to work there up until her retirement. But she had to move to her hometown of Victoria for family and medical support, wrote Kirchner.

Her lawsuit stated she could never return to work, but ICBC's experts and lawyers told court she would likely be able to return to work, not as a vet's assistant but in a part-time sedentary position. ICBC also disputed the amounts of damages sought by her lawyer.

But her lawyers said her psychological state is severe and told court it is past time for courts to recognize that severe depression disorder or PTSD caused by the other driver's negligence should be treated the same as physical injuries, the reasons said.

“I agree with the plaintiff there is no reason to treat a mental disorder any differently than a physical injury if its effect on the plaintiff's life is equally severe,” Kirchner wrote.

For pain and suffering, ICBC argued the award should be no more than $275,000 and her lawyer had asked for $430,000, he said.

The judge also awarded another $75,000 for past loss of housekeeping capacity, special damages and compensation for Michael's sister, who left her husband at their Oregon home for six months to take care of her sister.