Dear Editor,
Re:"Richmond business at brink of closing after owner's devastating accident"
I am a Richmond News reader from Japan.
After reading your Jan. 10 article, "Japanese auto repair shop owner Yanagitani, who was seriously injured in a car accident and is undergoing rehabilitation after a lengthy hospital stay, is on the verge of closing his business without adequate compensation," I posted this article with great concern about Richmond's insurance system.
If you drive a car, if you cause an accident, the other party could seek expensive damages from you. It is mandatory to have auto insurance so that you can be properly compensated for such an eventuality. There is always a cause for an accident, and the responsibility for the accident is clear. It is customary for evidence to be established by the police to identify the perpetrator.
The first question this article raises is whether the cause of the accident is unclear and compensation is being discussed with ambiguity as to who is responsible. Has there been sufficient investigation and investigation of the cause by the police?
The second question is the insurance system. Even though the type and magnitude of damage varies completely from accident to accident, isn't compensation determined without examining each accident in detail?
Since the amount of compensation is determined in advance, the cause of the accident and responsibility for the accident may remain ambiguous, but this does not affect the determination of compensation.
I do not think the insurance system is functioning well, especially when it comes to compensation for economic losses.
I understand that this insurance system was revised with the aim of lightening the burden on the perpetrator as much as possible.
Furthermore, victims are not allowed to sue the offender unless the offender is convicted of a specific crime, such as driving under the influence of alcohol, which I feel is a contradiction in terms, as the insurance system was originally intended to provide adequate compensation to the victim, but instead it has ended up helping the offender and causing suffering to the victim.
The essence of the problem lies in the insurance system, and the only way to solve this problem is for all drivers in B.C. to strongly recognize that the unfortunate incident that Mr. Yanagitani suffered is not someone else's problem, but a big problem that could happen to them as well, and to demand that the B.C. government improve the system.
I think we have no choice but to ask the B.C. government to improve the system.
Yasuo Mokutani
Japan
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