TRUCKSTOP NEWS - EVEN MORE READERS’ SUCCESSFUL WORK ACCIDENT CLAIMS

November 5th, 2009 admin

Published in Truckstop News November 2009.

In this month’s issue Steven Hinchliffe of the specialist Personal Injury Compensation firm Hinchliffes Solicitors will consider more “READERS’ SUCCESSFUL ACCIDENT CLAIMS”.

Continuing his review of successfully completed accident injury claims, Steven Hinchliffe looks at various situations experienced by readers of Truckstop News that ultimately lead to an award of personal injury compensation.

All of the accident victims mentioned in this series of articles are clients of my firm, Hinchliffes Solicitors. They have kindly given their permission for the disclosure of their details, and in particular of their real life experiences of incidents resulting in personal injury claims, and the steps taken to make a successful accident compensation claim. All of these clients contacted my firm after seeing our details in Truckstop News - and some of the names referred to may be familiar to you.

In this article I highlight 2 similar work accident claims and compare the different outcomes. As with the previous articles, the common trend that emerges is the significant effect on each individual’s life. Both of my clients suffered injuries (with varying degrees of seriousness) and lost income as a result, and also had to incur expenses (eg in attending medical appointments) that they would not otherwise have had to pay. Although using the established legal processes for making personal injury claims as a means of redress cannot truly compensate for the trauma and inconvenience suffered, it can assist in requiring the guilty party to provide medical treatment and rehabilitation, in addition to financial relief by way of awards of compensation. As previously stressed, the fundamental aim of all accident claims is to try and return the injured party to the position that he or she would otherwise have been in had the accident not happened.

CASE STUDY 1 - DRIVER STRUCK BY LOAD

On 26 March 2007 Mr P W Stevens of Motherwell in Lanarkshire was making a delivery to a company in Laindon while working as a truck driver for ARR Craib Transport Ltd. He was delivering large heavy rolls of paper, and on arrival had to open the trailer curtains and get up on the back of the trailer, so that he could remove the chocks holding the paper rolls in place to enable a fork lift truck driver to unload them. Unfortunately, while doing so the paper rolled forward uncontrollably and as he could not get out of the way he was pinned by the weight, and was only released when the FLT driver managed to move the paper out of the way.

Mr Stevens was following a procedure laid down by his employer; however the procedure was inherently unsafe and was only changed after the accident occurred. If a safe system of work had already been in place it is quite clear that Mr Stevens would not have been injured. The accident caused him to suffer crush injuries to both legs and although they were fortunately not serious injuries, they still took several months to heal and caused him to be away from work for 2 weeks.

As part of the claims process Mr Stevens had a medical examination by a consultant, and the resulting report was sent to his employer’s insurers, together with details of his financial losses. The insurers accepted responsibility for the accident a little over 4 months after the letter of claim was sent, and within a further month Mr Stevens had received £1,710 compensation for his injuries and £940 for his financial losses (including his lost earnings).

He first contacted my firm at the end of December 2007 and his claim was settled within a fairly short time in early July 2008, as the issues involved were relatively straight forward.

CASE STUDY 2 - DRIVER STRUCK BY TRAILER ROOF SUPPORT BAR

On 7 February 2007 Mr D A Newson of Folkestone, Kent suffered an accident while employed by Eurotrama (Europe) Ltd as a truck driver. He had been instructed to collect a trailer from Caterpillar Logistics in Desford, and was completing his usual safety checks before driving off when he noticed that the curtain on the trailer had not been closed properly. He looked inside the trailer to see what the problem was and while he was doing so a spring loaded metal bar came loose and hit him in the face. The bar was part of a mechanism supporting the roof, but it was defective and had not been properly fixed in position. If there had been a system of maintenance checks, the accident could have been avoided.

Mr Newson suffered injury to his mouth and damage to his teeth. The medical consultant instructed to prepare a report was also concerned about the blow to his head and a CT scan was arranged, but fortunately this revealed no significant internal damage. A further examination by a dental surgeon was also required to assess the damage to his teeth. Fortunately, once all the medical reports were obtained it was established that, despite the nature of the injuries, Mr Newson should have no major long term consequences.

This client contacted my firm a few days after the accident happened and a letter of claim was sent to his employer in early March 2007. Their insurers admitted responsibility 5 months later, but because of the extensive medical enquiries it was not possible to consider settlement issues for some time. However, by early summer 2008 his condition had settled and an acceptable compensation figure for both his injuries and financial losses was negotiated in July 2008.

PERSONAL INJURY CLAIM SOLICITORS:-

If you have suffered any form of accident or contracted an industrial disease contact personal injury claims specialists Hinchliffes Solicitors for immediate legal advice, to find out if you are entitled to make a claim for personal injury compensation. All cases are conducted on a Free No Win No Fee claims basis, where you keep 100% of the compensation recovered.

Call now on 0800 138 1348 to speak direct to one of our specialist claims solicitors or go to our Start Your Claim Now page to submit details of your accident compensation claim online.