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Peter came into the office the other day looking somewhat the worse for wear. His face was red and slightly scraped. He seemed to have a cut over one eye and his arm was in a sling. I asked if he had been in a car accident and he sheepishly replied that he had. I then asked for all the details about the incident.

Since I'm usually the first one Peter calls whenever he has an interesting car story or gets into some difficulty with his car, I was somewhat surprised that I had not heard from him earlier. Oddly enough, he was reluctant to tell me anything, but after some persuasion, I got him to spill the beans.

The tale he told was truly incredible for its sheer stupidity, if nothing else. About a week ago, he was driving with a friend in his friend's car. Since it was his friend's car, the friend was driving and Peter was sitting in the passenger seat.

As he was not used to being a passenger, Peter was constantly fiddling with the radio, satellite receiver and air-conditioning controls.

While normally the politest of individuals, his friend finally told Peter to settle down and keep his hands to himself. After all, the driver of the car is legally responsible for the safe driving of the vehicle and has the right to tell unruly passengers to stop distracting him. Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined the next major distraction he would face.

This particular car was equipped with a sunroof made of clear tempered glass. Since it was very hot outside, the sunroof was closed and the air conditioner was cranked to full blast.

The sun beating in through the sunroof was enough to annoy Peter by heating only one side of his face.

Just as the sunshine was really beginning to bother him,

Peter noticed an umbrella lying on the back seat. It was of the

automatic opening variety. Without giving it an intelligent thought, Peter reached over and took the umbrella in one hand and pressed the button. In hindsight, Peter thinks his reasoning for opening the umbrella inside a car was that it would give him shade from the sun coming in from the sunroof. Of course, he never considered the consequences.

As soon as he pressed the button, the umbrella did what it was designed to do: unfold and open. An umbrella opening in the front seat of a car would be a distraction enough to a driver. But in this particular case, the umbrella opened right in front of the driver's face and completely cut off his view of the road.

According to Peter, there is really no quick and easy way to close an open spring-loaded umbrella in the front seat of a car. At least not before the completely obstructed view causes the driver to ram his car into the car ahead of him with such force that the airbags deployed.

Airbags deploying into an open umbrella is not the way they were designed to deploy. While the airbags might have cushioned the blow from the

accident, they did push one of the points on a rib of the umbrella, slicing through Peter's forehead. He also broke his arm. Luckily enough, the driver escaped with only a few bruises.

From a legal point of view, Peter is 100 per cent at fault for this accident.

Although he was not a driver, he was a passenger who caused a major distraction and in fact completely obstructed the

driver's view, which in turn caused the driver to slam into the car ahead of him. Since the car was a writeoff, Peter is afraid his friend will sue him for the value of the car, particularly since he did not have two-way insurance.

Other lawsuits are probably pending as well, and in each of them, Peter will probably be held responsible and neither his homeowners nor car insurance will cover him for the consequences of his incredibly stupid manoeuvre.

Montreal lawyer Jordan Charness is a partner in the firm Charness, Charness & Charness.

Please send letters to Steering You Right, Driving section, The Gazette, 1010 Ste. Catherine St. W., Suite 200, Montreal, Quebec, H3B 5L1.


© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007

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