A Nanaimo woman whose vehicle was rear-ended by a man driving without insurance has been awarded close to $300,000 by the courts.
The accident happened on Turner Road back in October 2015, but Justice Robin Baird made his judgment Tuesday in B.C. Supreme Court in Nanaimo.
The woman, now 28, is a teacher with Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools. She was rear-ended turning in to her driveway by a defendant who was “wholly responsible,” according to the court’s judgment.
The woman, who already suffered from fibromyalgia, sustained soft-tissue injuries to her neck, back and shoulder in the crash, followed by headaches, anxiety and fatigue. After hearing medical evidence from three doctors, the judge decided that “the pain that she experiences to this part of her anatomy has become chronic, in part at least because the soft tissue injury has interacted negatively with her fibromyalgia in a continuous and persistent cycle that would likely not have occurred but for the accident.”
The woman, who reduced her work schedule this past fall to “0.56 of a full time teacher’s position,” was seeking more than $775,000 in damages, including $650,000 for loss of future income-earning capacity.
Baird said in his view, “it was not reasonable or necessary for the plaintiff to voluntarily and unilaterally reduce her work schedule by almost 50 per cent” but acknowledged that “because of the defendant’s negligence, the plaintiff will be forced to miss work on an intermittent but reasonably consistent basis.”
The woman was awarded $299,000 in damages, including $200,000 for loss of future earnings.
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