Archive for the 'Fatal accidents' Category

Published in Truckstop News June 2009.

In this month’s issue Steven Hinchliffe of the specialist Personal Injury firm Hinchliffes Solicitors will consider “INJURIES COMMONLY SUFFERED BY TRUCKERS IN WORK ACCIDENTS”.

This article considers the types of injuries commonly suffered by truckers every day, while at work.  Highlighting particular accident situations and their consequences may help to increase awareness of the dangers they face.

An accident can happen at any time while at work.  This may be on the road driving from one depot to another, during the loading or unloading process, or even when simply walking around a company’s premises waiting for instructions or for a vehicle to be made ready. 

It is normally necessary for an injured person wishing to claim personal injury compensation to start Court proceedings in support of their claim within three years of the date of their accident.  If they do not do so the claim will usually be lost, as it will have become statute barred because of the provisions of the Limitation Acts.

However, the Court of Appeal recently decided that when Judges are exercising their discretion whether or not to waive the three year time limit, they should not automatically regard the person or company responsible for causing the accident to be prejudiced by removing their ability to use the passage of time as a defence.

Published in Truckstop News – May 2009.

In this month’s issue Steven Hinchliffe of the specialist Personal Injury firm Hinchliffes Solicitors will consider “TRAILERS – HAZARDS THAT CAN RESULT IN ACCIDENTS”.

My many years’ experience of injury compensation claims made by truckers suggests that more problems arise when delivering or collecting a load than on the roads.  It is therefore not surprising that regulations place responsibilities on both employers and employees to help reduce the risk of injury.

Employers’ basic duties in this regard include:-

•  undertaking risk assessments and planning the loading and unloading of vehicles so as to avoid or minimise the need to work at height;
•  ensuring there are well designed access points to vehicles and trailers;
•  fitting additional safety equipment if necessary, eg access ladders or non-slip surfaces;
•  providing protective equipment, eg slip resistant footwear;
•  ensuring work equipment is well maintained;
•  recognising problems with particular vehicles and responding to suggestions, eg for preventing falls from those vehicles;
•  ensuring supervisors check how people get on and off vehicles, and enforce safe systems of work.

The law relating to vehicle insurance is to be tightened in an effort to reduce the number of motorists driving without insurance cover, which is currently around 6% of road users.

Alarmingly, statistics show that approximately 160 people are killed each year in road accidents in the UK involving uninsured drivers, with a further 23,000 people suffering a personal injury.

The innocent victims of these drivers, who suffer a personal injury and related financial loss, are still able to pursue car accident compensation claims through the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (“the MIB”), which is a body financed by all insurance companies.  However, that financing is actually provided by law abiding motorists as an extra £30 per year is added to their own insurance premium.

In future, it will become an offence not only to drive without vehicle insurance, but also to keep an uninsured vehicle.  Breach of this law will result in a penalty of up to £1,000 and may also lead to Court action to seize the vehicle in question.

Published in Truckstop News – April 2009.

In this month’s issue Steven Hinchliffe of the specialist Personal Injury firm Hinchliffes Solicitors will consider “SLIP SLIDING AWAY – SNOW AND ICE RELATED ACCIDENTS”.

Few people will have had the experiences of the Ice Road Truckers, whose polar exploits have recently been seen on TV.  However, the snow and ice that has been affecting the UK’s roads this winter may well have caused you significant problems, both while driving and when on foot.

The majority of ice and snow related accidents happen on public roads or pavements, and generally fall under the responsibility of the local council’s highway authority.  There is considerable debate about how far a council’s duty of care extends as far as gritting and salting is concerned.

It would be an impossible task for any council to make every highway, pavement and public area entirely safe during icy conditions.  However, in theory if a council fails to grit a road or public area during busy times of the day when the weather is exceptionally cold and someone suffers an injury because of this, the injured party may be able to make an accident compensation claim.  In practice, it is extremely difficult to succeed in such claims, as the council will probably defend all the way to a trial, and the Courts are increasingly reluctant to find against public authorities except in the very worst cases of neglect.

Published in Truckstop News –  March 2009.

In this month’s issue Steven Hinchliffe of the specialist Personal Injury firm Hinchliffes Solicitors will consider “UNINSURED ROAD ACCIDENT CLAIMS AND THE MOTOR INSURERS’ BUREAU”.

The Motor Insurers’ Bureau (“MIB”) was established in 1946 as an organisation to deal with claims by innocent victims who have suffered personal injury or damage to their property because of a negligent uninsured or untraced driver.  The MIB has entered into agreements with the Government to provide financial compensation in these situations.

Under the Road Traffic Act 1988, every insurance company underwriting compulsory motor insurance is obliged to be a member of the MIB and to contribute to its funding.  A staggering one out of every 20 drivers is uninsured, and as a result every insured driver pays around £30 more for their premium to cover the claims settled by the MIB.

Recent RAC reports suggest drivers are being driven to distraction by gadgets within their vehicles.  46% of drivers believe gadgets severely divert their attention away from the road, with the figure rising to 55% for drivers aged between 17 and 24.  A likely result of this is an increase in car accident claims for personal injury compensation.

In another survey it was revealed that the biggest distraction was satellite navigation equipment, with nearly 30% of drivers confirming that it affected their driving.  The use of iPods and CDs was also found to be significantly distracting, although the RAC have found that the main problem in this regard is with control buttons on the steering wheel and complex dashboard layouts.

Deaths from diseases caused by the inhalation of asbestos are not solely the result of working in heavy industry, as had been the widely held belief.  Nurses, doctors and teachers are among the 4,000 people each year who are dying from these diseases.

Statistics show that 183 teachers and lecturers died from Mesothelioma in the 20 year period between 1980 and 2000, but the disease claimed 76 lives in the 4 year period between 2002 and 2005.  There has been a similar increase in the number of nurses dying from this disease – from 49 between 1980 and 2000, to 25 between 2002 and 2005.

The Health and Safety Executive’s recent statistics show that for 2007/2008 there has been a reduction in the number of people who have been killed, injured or made ill by accidents at work.

Figures suggest that the incidents of work accident injury have fallen by approximately 9% since 2000, and that this trend is continuing.  Fatal workplace accidents have also reduced by around 5%.  The number of reported work related diseases appears to have also fallen, however there has been an increase in asbestos related diseases, such as Mesothelioma.

Companies are failing to invest in inexpensive and simple measures that would prevent their workforce having work accidents while working at height.  Many accident work claims for personal injury compensation are as a result of poor management, broken or inadequate equipment, or structural failures.  Records indicate that incidents involving a fall from a height currently result in more workplace deaths than from any other type of work accident.

Some employers appear to believe that workplace height regulations apply only to sizeable heights.  This is wrong, as anything above one metre is classed as “working at height”.  Many work accidents result in injuries when there is a fall at “low height”, such as when truck drivers unload goods from HGVs.