First of all, whiplash is an injury to the neck which is caused by the soft tissue in the neck being stretched and strained after a sudden jolt or movement. It is not just confined to the neck, it can affect the shoulders, back, arms and hands and most of the time can result in headaches.
Therefore, if you are travelling in a vehicle which has unluckily driven into/over a pot hole (and let’s face it, some of them at the moment are large enough to get stuck in), then the jolting movement of the vehicle can jolt your body and more importantly your neck.
Now this sort of whiplash is usually minor in the respect that it can resolve in a matter of weeks or months however in order to support a whiplash claim in these circumstances, it is vital that evidence is obtained from a medical expert in respect of the injury sustained.
The expert will comment upon the injuries sustained, confirm that they were caused by the circumstances and force of the accident and also they will confirm how long you are likely to be suffering with symptoms for.
All the expert’s opinions and comments will be provided within a report and this is what is used to negotiate any compensation award which is due to you.
Now unfortunately, given the state of the roads today, this is quite a common occurrence and therefore, as specialists in personal injury, we have been dealing with whiplash claims due to accidents such as these for a long time now – and we deal with a lot of them.
How a pothole whiplash claim works…
Normally a claim such as this would be pursued against the local council. However the council will often try to defend the claims using Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980. In this part of the Highways Act, states that:
“In an action against a highway authority in respect of damage resulting from their failure to maintain a highway maintainable at the public expense it is a defence (without prejudice to any other defence or the application of the law relating to contributory negligence) to prove that the authority had taken such care as in all the circumstances was reasonably required to secure that the part of the highway to which the action relates was not dangerous for traffic”
Basically this means that, although this part of the act doesn’t set out timescales for when maintenance works should be done, if the council can show that they have a reasonably regular inspection and maintenance procedure to check the roads etc for potential repairs and dangers, then a claim for personal injury can sometimes be made more difficult to win.
It is normally pretty straight forward to confirm the sort of inspection and repair regime used by the council, and also whether this is reasonable. The council must keep detailed records of all inspections and repairs carried out on the highway and therefore these are just requested from the council at the outset of a claim.
Therefore if the above circumstances sound familiar to you, please call 0800 634 7575 and get expert professional advice from The Injury Lawyers.