It’s winter. So, if you have had a car accident in bad weather, know your rights when it comes to making a claim for personal injury compensation.
Using the weather as an excuse for an accident taking place isn’t something you just have to accept. All road users should know that they need to adjust their behaviour in colder and wetter weather. The roads can be more slippery, and there may be snow and ice to contend with, as well as visibility being reduced.
These are elements that drivers must adjust to in order to stay safe, and any failure to do may allow victims to be able to pursue a legal case for compensation.
Claiming for a car accident in bad weather
You can be entitled to make a claim for personal injury compensation for being in a car accident in bad weather in the same way you can for a general road accident.
If the other road user is to blame, you should have a full claim if you have been injured. You may be entitled to compensation for any pain, suffering and loss of amenity caused. You may also be able to recover losses and expenses, like lost earnings form time off work, or private treatment expenses to help you recover quicker.
It shouldn’t be the case that the weather is used as part of a defence to refuse you your rights to compensation. All road users should know to take extra care when the weather is bad, so this kind of excuse shouldn’t be acceptable at all.
No Win, No Fee
We can offer No Win, No Fee representation for victims injured of a car accident in bad weather. As long as we feel that we can establish negligence against another road user, you should be able to successfully pursue a case against them and their insurers.
We’re normally happy to assess cases on a completely free and no-obligation basis. Just contact our team for a chat and we can see if we can help you right away.
If we can, we may be able to take your instructions to launch a case on the same day that you contact us – all in one simple phone call. We specialise in serious injury cases as well, so you should definitely speak to our team ASAP for all the expert advice you need.
What about bad weather accidents and councils?
It can be possible to try and pursue a claim for a car accident in bad weather where you allege that the council has failed to make the highways safe. However, these kinds of cases are incredibly difficult to succeed with, and they’re not usually something we can take forward on a No Win, No Fee basis.
Establishing negligence for something like a failure to grit a road in time can be incredibly difficult to prove. If generally poor road surfaces may have contributed to an accident, you would still need to prove that, not only was that an attributable factor, but that the council are in breach of the Highways Act 1980. They actually have a special defence whereby they can defend cases based on reasonable systems of inspection, so succeeding with cases in those kinds of scenarios can be just as hard.
