After experiencing a brief ‘Indian summer’ in late September/ early October, the weather is now turning cold again and it surely won’t be long until we are reaching for those hats, scarves and gloves in preparation for the, if the past two winters are anything to go by, seemingly inevitable deluge of heavy snow and ice.
The past two winters of 2009 and 2010 are said to have been the coldest in the UK for over 100 years, so not many of us will remember many worse winters. The cold weather bought with it heavy snow and ice, which lead to a huge increase in accidents and resulted in extremely busy periods for personal injury lawyers, such as ourselves, who were inundated with new claims and advice enquiries.
But how easy is it to make a claim against a local authority for compensation following an accident as a result of snow and ice? Well, the answer is unfortunately not very easy at all and this is illustrated in the case of Rhiannon Pace V City and County of Swansea 2007. In this case the accident victim was injured in a Road Traffic Accident caused by black ice on the road. It was accepted by the Judge in this case that the accident was caused by the ice, however he ruled that the local authority had not been negligent. When considering this case, the Judge considered two questions, the first of which is: Was the local authority’s winter maintenance plan proper and reasonable?
The Judge commented on this question as follows:
“It is clearly impossible for a highway authority to eliminate all risk of ice forming on the roads. It is also impossible for the plans to be devised at so high a level of protection that the very greatest level of protection is always provided. To place almost limitless amounts of salt on the roads may perhaps increase the levels of protection but it would do so at an entirely unrealistic and undesirable economic and environmental costs. A highway authority must instead devise a plan in accordance with best practice, using sufficient quantities of salt to address the foreseeable risks efficiently but with manageable and, importantly, sustainable constraints.”
Having stated the above, the Judge ruled that the local authorities plan was adequate as it was based upon the national code of practice for maintenance management.
The Second question considered by the judge when dealing with this case was: Had the plan been properly implemented?
Despite witness evidence from a police officer stating that, in his opinion, there was no visible evidence of gritting when he attended the scene of the accident, the Judge dismissed the suggestion from the accident victim that this, along with the very fact that ice had formed in the first place, proved that no gritting had taken place and instead believed the local authorities submission that gritting had taken place.
The Judge concluded that the local authority had taken all reasonable steps to prevent ice forming in the road and therefore the Claimant’s case was unsuccessful.
The above mentioned case highlights the difficulty of making a claim against a local authority where snow and ice is concerned because their duty is not to ensure that all roads are free from ice, but to take all reasonable steps. However, this is not to say that it is impossible to succeed with this type of claim, but, if you are unfortunate enough to have been involved in such an accident, it is clearly important to get the right advice from specialist personal injury lawyers such as ourselves.
It is often difficult to assess the merits of this type of case in the first instance; however, if we take the case on, we will do so on a Genuine no-win, no-fee basis which you have full financial protection with. We will then make comprehensive enquiries and obtain full documentation from the local authority relating to their inspection records, winter plans and procedures, and use this to consider your case further. If, following our investigations, we do not feel that the case is likely to succeed, we will advise you accordingly and it will not have cost you a penny. If however, the case is successful, you will keep 100% of the compensation awarded and all our legal fees are recovered separately from the local authority.
Source: The Legal Executive Journal
