PASSENGER NOT WEARING SEAT BELT “NOT GUILTY” OF CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE

May 21st, 2010 admin

In February 2010, in the personal injury compensation claim case of Stanton v Collinson, the Court of Appeal upheld the initial trial judge’s decision that a 16 year old male front seat car passenger who had suffered serious brain damage in a road accident had not been contributory negligent, even though he had carried another passenger on his knees and neither had been wearing seat belts. The Court of Appeal found that the trial judge was in the best situation to consider the evidence and decide whether the wearing of a seat belt would have reduced the injuries sufficiently to justify a reduction in compensation for contributory negligence.

COMMENT:-

In cases involving the wearing of seat belts it is usually the position that where a seat belt is not worn and injury would have been less or avoided altogether then the damages are reduced to reflect fault on behalf of the passenger. In this case the Court rejected this because on the particular facts of the case as it was felt that the wearing of a seat belt was completely immaterial to how the injuries had been suffered. An unusual outcome but a reminder that the person who caused the accident by their negligence (in practice their insurers) must pay personal injury compensation to those injured as a result.

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