What is the standard of care for a public carrier to avoid or prevent injury to a passenger by applying an emergency brake?

Day v. Toronto Transportation Commission, 1940 CanLII 7 (SCC), [1940] S.C.R. 433, is the seminal case respecting the liability of public carriers. In Day, a passenger fell to the floor and was injured when the streetcar operator applied the emergency brake. The standard of care was stated by Hudson J. at 441 as “a heavy burden on the defendant carrier to establish that he had used all due, proper and reasonable care and skill to avoid or prevent injury to the passenger.”

The principles of liability arising from Day have been articulated into the following analytical approach: • once a passenger on a public carrier has been injured in an accident, a prima facie case of negligence is raised; and • it is for the public carrier to establish that the passenger’s injuries were occasioned without negligence on the part of the defendant or that it resulted from a cause for which the carrier was not responsible. See: Visanji v. Eaton and Coast Mountain Bus Co. Ltd., 2006 BCSC 656 at para. 26.