Licence Appeal Tribunal
FILE: 7905/MED
CASE NAME: 7905 v. Registrar of Motor Vehicles
Appeal under Section 50(1) of the Highway Traffic Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, from a Decision of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles Pursuant to Section 47(1) of that Act - to Suspend a Licence
Applicant: 7905
-and-
Respondent: Registrar of Motor Vehicles
REASONS FOR DECISION AND ORDER
ADJUDICATOR: Dr. Garry Fisher
APPEARANCES:
For the Applicant: Self-represented
For the Respondent: Russell McKnight, Agent
Heard in Simcoe, Ontario: March 13, 2013
DECISION AND REASONS
This is an appeal to the Licence Appeal Tribunal by the Applicant respecting a decision of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles (the "Registrar") pursuant to section 47(1) of the Highway Traffic Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8 (the "Act").
FACTS
The Applicant is a 39 year old woman who has had two involuntary admissions to a regional hospital near her hometown.
On March 13, 2012, she was admitted for a month – the admitting diagnosis was paranoia.
Dr. F admitted her and was obliged to submit a form 203 to MTO.
On November 29, 2012, she again was involuntarily admitted to the same hospital after arriving in the E.R. in police custody. The diagnosis by the E.R. doctor, Dr. K., was acute psychosis. In hospital for the next month, she was attended to by Dr. F. – a psychiatrist who was treating her for the second thirty day period within eight months.
In keeping with the CCMTA guidelines on driver fitness, the Applicant's licence was suspended after the first admission. She wrote a brief note to MTO dated July 3, 2012, after she spoke with her family doctor, Dr. G.R. It was her concern that there was nothing wrong with her; that she has no impairment of judgment, and she wasn't going to take the advice of Dr. F., a psychiatrist "who didn't know her".
Now she has a problem. Dr. G.R., the family doctor, sent her a brief dictated note explaining that he couldn't help her "because he wasn't a psychiatrist".
Clearly, she needs to see either the doctor who treated her on her two admissions, or another of her choice. Medical opinion based on her actions (behaviour) got her to where she is presently. She simply needs the documentation to be assessed by the Medical Review Committee of MTO.
ISSUES
Should the decision of the Registrar to suspend the Applicant's licence be confirmed, modified or set aside?
Does the Applicant suffer from a mental, emotional, nervous or physical disability likely to significantly interfere with his or her ability to drive a motor vehicle safely?
LAW
O. Reg. 340/94, Section 14 states:
(1) An applicant for or a holder of a driver's licence must not,
(a) suffer from any mental, emotional, nervous or physical condition or disability likely to significantly interfere with his or her ability to drive a motor vehicle of the applicable class safely; or
(b) be addicted to the use of alcohol or a drug to an extent likely to significantly interfere with his or her ability to drive a motor vehicle safely.
(2) In determining whether an applicant for or a holder of a driver's licence of any class meets the qualifications described in subsection (1), the Minister,
(a) may take into consideration the relevant medical standards for applicants or holders of that class of driver's licence set out in the CCMTA Medical Standards for Drivers; and
(b) may require the applicant or holder to provide evidence satisfactory to the Minister that he or she is able to drive a motor vehicle of the applicable class safely, including,
(i) any reports of examinations under section 15, and
(ii) any additional medical information.
(3) Despite clause (2) (a) and unless otherwise provided in this Regulation, if there is a difference between a medical standard set out in the CCMTA Medical Standards for Drivers and a medical standard set out in this Regulation, the Minister shall take into consideration the standard set out in this Regulation instead of the standard set out in the CCMTA Medical Standards for Drivers.
(4) In this section, the CCMTA Medical Standards for Drivers means the document entitled CCMTA Medical Standards for Drivers, published by the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators and dated March 2009, as it may be amended from time to time, that is available on the Internet through the website of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators.
Section 47(1) states:
Subject to section 47.1, the Registrar may suspend or cancel,
(b) a driver's licence; …
on the grounds of,
(d) misconduct for which the holder is responsible, directly or indirectly, related to the operation or driving of a motor vehicle;
(e) conviction of the holder for an offence referred to in subsection 210(1) or (2);
(f) the Registrar having reason to believe, having regard to the safety record of the holder or of a person related to the holder, and any other information that the Registrar considers relevant, that the holder will not operate a commercial motor vehicle safely or in accordance with this Act, the regulations and other laws relating to highway safety; or
(g) any other sufficient reason not referred to in clause (d), (e) or (f).
Section 50 of the Act states:
50 (1) Every person aggrieved by a decision of the Minister made under subsection 32(5) for which there is a right of appeal pursuant to a regulation made under clause 32 (14) (n) or a decision of the Registrar under section 17 or 47 may appeal the decision to the Tribunal.
(2) The Tribunal may confirm, modify or set aside the decision of the Minister or the Registrar.
APPLICATION OF THE LAW TO FACTS
The Applicant has had two involuntary admissions in the past year and could tell the Tribunal very little about the circumstances of those admissions. She has brought no medical evidence forward to the Tribunal. What the Tribunal has before it is evidence of two lengthy admissions to hospital with a diagnosis of a serious mental health issue (her condition on the first admission having precipitated an assessment by the physician that she could not drive a vehicle safely, the form 203) and no evidence of treatment otherwise undertaken by the Applicant to mitigate any effects it might have, nor any evidence from the Applicant to indicate insight regarding her condition. At the very least, it was made clear, in the Tribunal's view, that minimum support for recovery of a driver's licence would be the discharge summaries of her hospital visits, a copy of which may be available from her family doctor.
Weighing the limited evidence before it, the Tribunal has determined, at this time, that the Applicant's mental health issues are likely to significantly interfere with her ability to drive a motor vehicle safely.
DECISION
Upon the application by the Applicant to appeal the decision dated April 13, 2012, of the Registrar to suspend her driver's licence pursuant to Section 47(1) of the Act, and having considered the evidence filed with the Tribunal, and the submissions of the Registrar and of the Applicant;
IT IS THE DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL pursuant to the authority vested in it under section 50(2) of the Act that the decision of the Registrar be confirmed.
LICENCE APPEAL TRIBUNAL
Dr. Garry Fisher, Presiding Member
RELEASED: April 2, 2013