Hank
Active Member
I was hoping someone here might be able to help me clarify the laws with respect to a run-in I just had with a streetcar while I was driving.
I was driving east on Queen, approaching Broadview. There was an articulated streetcar in the left lane, and no one in the right lane. The streetcar's doors weren't open, so I drove up beside it (I don't entirely remember whether the streetcar had entered the intersection or not; if it had, it wasn't by much). As I approached the intersection the light changed, so I stopped at the front of the right lane. As the light turned red, the streetcar went to turn left (north) onto Broadview. As it turned, the rear of the streetcar jutted out into my lane, scraping the side of my car pretty badly.
As I was discussing this with the police officer later she basically told me that, even if my car was within my lane, the accident was still my fault if my car was within the curved dashed line that indicates how far the front and back end of the streetcar swings into other lanes when it turns (ie there's the regular lane line, then a series of small dots describing a curve of a maximum of maybe a foot or so into the lane that shows where the back of the streetcar sticks out when it turns...hopefully that's fairly clear).
I understand what the police officer is saying, but my question is: in which law or bylaw is the purpose of these curved streetcar turning radius lines set out? I quickly scanned the Ontario Highway Traffic Act and the Toronto municipal code and didn't see anything, so I was hoping someone here might know better. I'm basically wondering how it can be negligent for me to drive my car into the area between the dashed line and the lane line if the purpose of the dashed line (which I don't believe is a common road marking) is not set out in any of the municipal or provincial traffic laws.
Anyway, this is probably going to result in me paying a huge deductible at the very least, but I'm at least trying to put together some sort of argument for it not counting as an at-fault accident with respect to raising my insurance rates. Any help people can provide would be appreciated.
I was driving east on Queen, approaching Broadview. There was an articulated streetcar in the left lane, and no one in the right lane. The streetcar's doors weren't open, so I drove up beside it (I don't entirely remember whether the streetcar had entered the intersection or not; if it had, it wasn't by much). As I approached the intersection the light changed, so I stopped at the front of the right lane. As the light turned red, the streetcar went to turn left (north) onto Broadview. As it turned, the rear of the streetcar jutted out into my lane, scraping the side of my car pretty badly.
As I was discussing this with the police officer later she basically told me that, even if my car was within my lane, the accident was still my fault if my car was within the curved dashed line that indicates how far the front and back end of the streetcar swings into other lanes when it turns (ie there's the regular lane line, then a series of small dots describing a curve of a maximum of maybe a foot or so into the lane that shows where the back of the streetcar sticks out when it turns...hopefully that's fairly clear).
I understand what the police officer is saying, but my question is: in which law or bylaw is the purpose of these curved streetcar turning radius lines set out? I quickly scanned the Ontario Highway Traffic Act and the Toronto municipal code and didn't see anything, so I was hoping someone here might know better. I'm basically wondering how it can be negligent for me to drive my car into the area between the dashed line and the lane line if the purpose of the dashed line (which I don't believe is a common road marking) is not set out in any of the municipal or provincial traffic laws.
Anyway, this is probably going to result in me paying a huge deductible at the very least, but I'm at least trying to put together some sort of argument for it not counting as an at-fault accident with respect to raising my insurance rates. Any help people can provide would be appreciated.