Vancouver Island man awarded $326,000 in court after being rammed in road rage attack

What began as an argument in a gas station on Vancouver Island led to a road rage incident in which the driver of a van repeatedly rammed a SmartCar and almost pushed it into a ditch.

The encounter left the SmartCar driver with injuries serious enough six years later to all but end his career as a labourer and in chronic pain, according to a lawsuit decision in B.C. Supreme Court.

“This case chronicles the damage that can be caused to the life of a person who is caught up in aggressive behaviour in a vehicular milieu,” wrote Justice K. Michael Stephens in his reasons for judgment delivered before Christmas, months after the six-day trial.

The man’s doctor told the court “he had done thousands of medical legal examinations during his career, and the plaintiff’s situation stands out as sad,” the judge wrote.

Stephens awarded the driver of the SmartCar, Marc Brown, 60, $326,000 in damages, about half of which was for lost past and future wages.