Liability Rear ending
 

say i was to rear end someone that was driving and only had 1 brake light or no brake light, would i still be 100% at fault

Yes.

You should be aware of what is happening and keep a safe distance.

If you know a car has poorly working or non-functional brake lights, why whould you not increase your following distance even further?

Either look through the car with no brake lights to see what the car in front is doing, or in the case where you cannot see through (deeply tinted window, work van, etc...) stagger your car in the lane so you can see the brake lights of the vehicle in front of the guy with no brake lights.

I have chargerd drivers of vehicles with brake lights that did not work and also ones with tinted covers and shields, that were rear-ended. In these cases the crash resulted when the following driver could not see any brake light function and hit the car in front. The tickets were never contested and I have been told that ICBC found the car with u/s lights responsible...to varying degrees. I know of a severe motorcycle crash where the rider was rearended due to a "fender eliminator" setup where the rider was held liable for causing the crash and ICBC found him at fault. The illegal conversion combined the brake/tail & signal light functions into one split light and removed the red reflector. The driver never had a chance to see the light in daylight. Rider suffered some major injuries and is likely hooped for a very long time....and he was held financially responsible as well for all damages and costs.

In all but exceptional circumstances it's likely to be 100%.

http://www.canlii.com/eliisa/highlig...anlii2314.html , do a further search if you want to read more.

these points are only valid when you are following someone that has broken taillights, etc.

Case:

if someone were to quickly change lanes infront of you, then slam on the brakes. There brake lights are broken, and you end up rear-ending them. That is not because you are following to close.

This is pretty common.

Don't "shadow" other cars and you won't have to worry about that situation. Much.