Three passengers killed and 28 injured in tour of US and Ontario
In a case arising from a motor coach collision, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded the plaintiffs in six actions more than $8.37 million and granted the relief they requested on an apportionment motion.
The case of Cai v. Qi, 2025 ONSC 1981, arose when 34 adult residents of China were taking a motor coach tour. They travelled from China to San Francisco, California and finished touring the western US. They then toured the Eastern US and Ontario.
On June 4, 2018, on day 17 of the planned 22-day tour, the motor coach left Ottawa and headed toward Toronto. The vehicle travelled south on Highway 416 and west on Highway 401. While westbound near Prescott, Ontario, it left the highway and collided with a rocky outcropping.
Video footage from a dash camera showed that the motor coach crossed the solid white line separating the travelled lane from the paved shoulder, then travelled onto the gravel shoulder and along a grassy ditch running parallel to the highway. The vehicle’s passenger side hit and scraped against the outcropping, which ran the length of the ditch.
The single-vehicle collision killed three passengers and injured 28 others. The passengers who died or suffered the most serious injuries were sitting next to the passenger-side windows at the time.
In September 2021, the motor coach driver pleaded guilty to careless driving under s. 130 of Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act, 1990. The presiding justice of the peace set a $4,000 fine and imposed a nine-month driver’s licence suspension.
Under Ontario’s Family Law Act, 1990, 41 residents of China filed claims as family members of the deceased or injured passengers. Six actions tackled the claims on behalf of the deceased and injured passengers and their family members.
All counsel acting for the parties to these actions worked collaboratively. The parties’ counsel resolved an issue involving the scope of coverage of the automobile insurance policy issued by Safety Insurance Company to the transportation provider, Union Tour Express Inc. They also cost-effectively addressed the liability issues.
The collective opinion of the plaintiffs’ counsel was that only the claims against the driver and Union Tour were meritorious.
Via mediation, the plaintiffs agreed to share the third-party limits available from Safety Insurance and the costs payable by the insurer on a pro-rata basis. They also resolved the disbursements, which were unique to each action and payable by the insurer.
The plaintiffs brought an apportionment motion asking the court to approve the amount of the disbursements unique to each action and the pro-rata sharing of the third-party limits and costs.
The Superior Court of Justice of Ontario approved the apportionment proposed by the plaintiffs. The court awarded them $8,370,347.08 in total ($7,153,403.43 for insurance proceeds, $919,808.70 for legal fees, and $297,134.95 for disbursements).
The court found the plaintiffs in the six actions entitled to their pro-rata share of this award:
The court ruled that the plaintiffs gave enough evidence to show the appropriate investigations and assessments of the liability and damages issues. The court held that the proposed apportionment of the insurance proceeds and disbursements unique to each action was fair and reasonable to all plaintiffs.
Regarding the legal fees, the court found the proposal of 12 percent of the insurance proceeds for all plaintiffs was reasonable and reflective of the collaborative and cost-effective approach of the plaintiffs’ counsel.
The court noted that decisions in personal injury matters sometimes calculated the fee portion of costs at 15 percent for the first $100,000 paid and 10 percent on each $100,000 paid after that.
