ICBC changes today mean driving tickets or convictions could have a substantial impact on your insurance rates when the new system rolls out this September.
But at least one lawyer says today’s changes are “ridiculous.”
Speaking on NL’s The Woodford Show Acumen Law’s Kyla Lee says how ICBC defines serious and minor offences is pretty broad and very heavy handed.
For instance seatbelt infractions.
“Two seatbelt tickets will constitute high risk driving such that your insurance premiums go up, which to me is absolutely disconnected from reality. There is no sense in saying that you in not wearing your seatbelt on two occasions makes you more likely to get in an accident and more likely to cost the insurance company money.”
Lee uses distracted driving definitions as another example.
“They are talking about a single cell phone conviction, which could be something as simple as not having your phone mounted while you are using it for GPS. Or for somebody who has an ‘N’ just having the phone in the vehicle and playing music through the speakers of the vehicle. You are not allowed to that with your ‘N.’ That doesn’t make you a high risk driver in the same that actually using the phone in the common sense way does but that is the definition that they are employing.”
Lee says even more concerning with three months to go before ICBC moves to insure the driver and not the car people still have no idea what these changes mean financially.
“People need to know that information and they need to know the extent of the financial impact it is going to have on them and they need to know that before the changes are going to impact them. The government has kept that information secret and now it is to late.”
In September ICBC will move to insure the driver making sure each person’s driving record and crash history follows them not their vehicle.
Part of the process to determine your insurance rates will be a three year scan of your driving record.
Attorney General Dave Eby has promised ICBC would soon post a tool online to allow drivers to understand the new system and what it will cost them.
