Woman awarded $1.4M in crash involving drunk driver

VANCOUVER – The daughter of a prominent Vancouver lawyer has won a $1.4-million court award for an accident involving a drinking driver who ran a red light in 2005.

The Insurance Corp. of B.C. argued at trial that the accident victim, Laura Rose Shapiro, should be found partly liable for turning into the intersection at Nanaimo and Dundas while the left-hand-turn light went from flashing green to yellow.

The accident was witnessed by Daphne Marlatt, a celebrated poet and novelist, who saw the left-hand-turn light change and stopped her car.

She recalled the car beside her, driven by Shapiro, didn’t come to a stop. Both cars were heading east and turning north onto Nanaimo; there are two left-turn lanes at the intersection.

But the court found that the driver of the oncoming vehicle, Randy Wayne Dailey, was 100 per cent at fault because he went through the red light.

The judge found Dailey had been drinking since 4 a.m. that morning and had taken the car he was driving without the permission of its owner. He was convicted in criminal court for failing stop at the scene and for knowingly operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent.

At the time, Shapiro was 23, was a student at Capilano College and working as a "girl Friday" at the Vancouver lawyer firm of Shapiro Hankinson & Knutson, where her father, Bryan Shapiro, was a founding partner and is considered one of Canada’s best construction industry lawyers.

A civil trial heard evidence of how the accident left Laura Shapiro with soft-tissue injuries and chronic pain, which caused her lost income and affected her future employment opportunities.

After considering the evidence of a number of medical experts, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Grauer awarded the young women $1.4 million in damages, including $900,000 for future loss of income earning capacity, $128,674 for past loss of income, $110,000 for non-pecuniary damages, $286,846 for future care costs and special damages of $2,182.

The judgment is online at: http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/SC/10/07/2010BCSC0770.htm

nhall@vancouversun.com