How have courts interpreted the concept that a driver is entitled to assume traffic will comply with the law and stop?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Hutchings v. Dow et al, 2006 BCSC 629 (CanLII):

The defendant Vischon, in relying on the concept that he was entitled to assume traffic would comply with the law and come to a stop, referred to the judgment of Lord Atkinson in Toronto Railway Company v. King et al., [1908] A.C. 260 at 269 (P.C.), which reads as follows: But why not assume these things? It was the driver’s duty to do them all, and traffic in the streets would be impossible if the driver of each vehicle did not proceed more or less upon the assumption that the drivers of all the other vehicles will do what it is their duty to do, namely observe the rules regulating the traffic of the streets.

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