Is a recreational vehicle (RV) accident different from a motor vehicle accident?
Recreational Vehicles (RV)
The term, “recreational vehicles,” evokes a sense of fun, adventure, and excitement. Most people will think of cross-country trips in camper vans, the off-road thrill of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), and snowmobiling across a white expanse of land. The harsh reality is that when an accident occurs during the operation of a recreational vehicle, the “recreational” part of it is quickly stripped away.
Just like your regular sedan, recreational vehicles are governed by provincial statutes and regulations that dictate your responsibility to insure recreational vehicles and set out the consequences if you fail to have insurance when involved in an accident.
The Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act requires that a motor vehicle being operated on a highway be insured under a contract of automobile insurance. The definition of “motor vehicle” includes an automobile, a motorcycle, a motor assisted bicycle unless otherwise indicated in the Act, and any other vehicle propelled or driven otherwise than by muscular power, but does not include a street car or other motor vehicle running only upon rails, a power-assisted bicycle, a motorized snow vehicle, a traction engine, a farm tractor, a self-propelled implement of husbandry or a road-building machine. Additionally, “highway” includes a common and public highway, street, avenue, parkway, driveway, square, place, bridge, viaduct or trestle, any part of which is intended for or used by the general public for the passage of vehicles and includes the area between the lateral property lines thereof.
What about those vehicles that do not fall within the scope of a “motor vehicle” as defined by the Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act? There are statues for those, too. For instance, the Motorized Snow Vehicles Act governs “motorized snow vehicles” – defined as self-propelled vehicles designed to be driven primarily on snow. Likewise, the Off-Road Vehicles Act applies to vehicles propelled or driven otherwise than by muscular power or wind and designed to travel (a) on not more than three wheels, or (b) on more than three wheels and being a prescribed class of vehicle.
Whether a motor vehicle, a motorized snow vehicle, or an off-road vehicle, they all have something in common: they must be insured under a motor vehicle liability policy if they are being operated. The consequences of failing to insure your recreational vehicle could be costly if you find yourself involved in a serious collision. One need only look at what happened to the plaintiff farmer in Matheson v. Lewis, 2014 ONCA 542. In that case, the farmer was rear-ended by a truck while taking a shortcut on a public road on his ATV, which he used in his farming operations. As a result of the collision, he suffered catastrophic injuries. Unfortunately, his ATV was not insured under a motor vehicle insurance policy. The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the ATV model in question was an “off-road vehicle” as defined under the Off-Road Vehicles Act, that it was therefore required to be insured while operating on a highway pursuant to the Compulsory Automobiles Insurance Act, and that because it was not, the plaintiff’s claim for statutory accident benefits – which could have entitled him to payment of income replacement benefits, non-earner benefits, lost educational expenses, expenses of visitors, or housekeeping and home maintenance benefits – was foreclosed.
The Highway Traffic Act, the Off-Road Vehicles Act, the Motorized Snow Vehicles Act, the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, the Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act, and the parts of the Insurance Act dealing with motor vehicle insurance are all components of one comprehensive scheme, which Singer Kwinter has decades of experience navigating. Contact us today for a free consultation.
