Electric scooters sit awkwardly inside insurance systems built around cars, pedestrians and bicycles. Le Prieur v Aviva Insurance Company of Canada, 2026 ABKB 452, forced an Alberta court to decide where a privately owned electric scooter belongs when its rider is injured by an insured motor vehicle.
Mr. Le Prieur was riding his own electric scooter in a downtown Edmonton bike lane when a minivan turned across the lane into an alley. The vehicles collided and he was injured. He sought Section B accident benefits under the policy covering the minivan.
Aviva denied the claim because Section B does not extend the same benefits to a person who is occupying another automobile. That made the classification of the scooter decisive.
The Court held that the scooter fell within the Insurance Act definition of automobile for this purpose. The statutory language was broad enough to capture a self propelled electric vehicle even though a private scooter cannot be registered and insured in the same way as an ordinary passenger vehicle. Once the scooter was treated as an automobile, its rider fell within the occupant exclusion and could not obtain Section B benefits from the minivan policy.
The result creates a practical tension. A private scooter may be difficult or impossible to insure as a conventional motor vehicle, yet the legislation can still classify it as an automobile when deciding access to another vehicle's no fault benefits. The Court applied the statutory language rather than trying to repair that gap through interpretation.
For insurers and claims professionals, the decision offers a clearer classification rule for Section B. For riders, it exposes a coverage gap that may not be obvious when choosing a form of transportation.
The ruling is limited to the Section B benefits claim. It did not determine responsibility for the collision or the rider's separate tort rights. Its significance is narrower and important. Under Alberta's current insurance legislation, the character of the device a claimant occupies can determine whether no fault benefits are available from the other vehicle's policy.