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As a pillion passenger, or any passenger, it is your driver’s duty to take reasonable care for your safety. Therefore, if you are involved in an accident as a pillion passenger and were injured as a result, it is highly likely that a claim for compensation will be successful.

As a passenger it is extremely improbable that you were at fault for the accident, unless you did something stupid to cause the driver to lose control and cause a collision. You can normally expect to receive 100% of any compensation awarded.

However, there can be circumstances where the compensation is reduced due to contributory negligence even if the accident was caused through no fault of you own, but where you have contributed in some way to your injuries.
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As it just so happens, not only have I been advising people about claims for compensation for many years now, but I am somewhat of an expert in sporting injuries myself. I sadly suffered one of the worst sporting injuries you can sustain in January this year (multi ligament ruptures in the knee resulting in nerve damage and needing an operation for multi ligament reconstruction surgery and a nerve graft), and the nightmare its put me through has been enough to know I’m not going to be playing football again anytime soon (if ever!)

The problem is that sporting injury claims are not easy to win. For a claim for compensation to be successful, two key ingredients need to be satisfied – there has to be negligence (i.e. someone at fault for what’s happened) and your injuries have to have been caused by the aforementioned fault.

Now, when you take part in sport, by law, you accept that there are risks involved. If you play football you accept that in a midair jump for the ball, you could hit an opposing player who is also jumping for the ball, and you can both end up falling awkwardly. You accept that you can be tackled and taken down, which can inherently cause injury through impact of the opposing player sweeping you from your feet. You accept that you can fall awkwardly as I did and rupture several vital ligaments in your knee and rupture a nerve as well, leaving you with potentially permanent damage.
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I’m going to start by probably pointing out the obvious here – accidents and incidents in bars, pubs and clubs are all too common. When there’s lots of alcohol, lots of excitement, and lots of people all crowded together, the potential for accidents is inevitable. The focus of this blog is going to be on accidents as oppose to incidents however; for more info on that, look up criminal injuries on our main blog page.

So, aside from the fact that lots of alcohol means lots of people with less balance and concentration jigging around the place, there are plenty of other obstacles and hazards that could cause you some serious damage.

Slips
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“A man [has] an absolute right to be (on the road) and it is a duty of drivers of vehicles not to run him down” (Craig v Glasgow Corporation (1919) 35 TLR 214). In the old times, when car travel was beyond imaginable and pedestrians and horses ruled, this was the prominent view for pedestrians’ liability. However, now that car travel is the norm, the modern approach places more responsibilty on the pedestrian to exercise due care when stepping off the kerb.

Although the Highway code is often viewed as guidance for drivers, the first 33 paragraphs relate to the rights and duties of pedestrians; for example, ‘pavements should be used if provided’ and ‘wear or carry something light-coloured, bright or fluorescent in poor daylight conditions’. The former is common sense to many but the latter is arguably questionable. How many people think of choosing their brightly coloured clothing to wear on a dark depressing day or at night when going to the theatre, just incase they need to walk on the road?

The most famous set of rules for a pedestrian’s duty is contained within rule 7 and is the message that has been bombarded to us at school and throughout the media for so many years – The Green Cross Code. 
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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (commonly abbreviated to PTSD) is a serious condition that can have a range of difficult affects on the sufferer. PTSD is a psychological condition that is often serious when formally diagnosed. In some ways it can be a bit of a step up from anxiety, and is often linked with conditions relating to depression.

It can be caused by a multitude of things, and it is recognised as an ‘injury’ that can be claimed for in a personal injury case. Normally the cause is related to a singular or series of events or occurrences that has some form of adverse psychological effect on you – for example, a near death experience, or witnessing a horrific and / or violent incident.

Being involved in an accident itself when severe enough can leave you suffering from PTSD – being hit by a lorry on a motorway, causing your car to spin out of control and flip several times could easily cause it. For those brief seconds that feel like years as everything falls in to slow motion, you convince yourself you are going to die, and panic sets in…
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Personal protective equipment, or PPE, is equipment that is used or worn in the work place in order to avoid hazards that are created by a job. Personal protective equipment includes a variety of things such as safety goggles, ear plugs or protectors, face guards, protective footwear and gloves.

The type of and amount of equipment you will wear in the workplace will depend on the risks involved with your job.

The equipment can protect against minor scuffs and scrapes; however, on a more serious note, it can also protect against diseases caused by asbestos, hearing loss in noisy work places, and vibration white finger when using machinery.
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Horse Riding School Claims

Horse riding is an extremely popular past time in the UK, with tens of thousands of people attending horse riding schools every week to either ride or look after horses.

Unfortunately, horse riding accidents are also very common at these schools, not least because of the sheer size, power and unpredictability of horses.
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I can’t tell how many times I have worked on a personal injury claim that involves tripping as a result of a protrusion in the street; whether it is a raised paving slab, loose drain cover, or bit of metal struck it the concrete.  These accidents are every common and can cause significant injury to someone walking along without any knowledge of them.

Tripping accidents are seen mainly as a comical stereotypical claim taken on without a good reason – but it is important to understand that these kinds of accidents can often cause a great deal of pain and suffering to the person involved. Landing hard on a concrete floor can cause broken bones and serious damage to your body. This can involve you having to take time off work and incurring a loss of earnings or missing out on holidays booked, amongst many other inconveniences.

So it’s certainly something that shouldn’t be taken so lightly.
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In this sunny weather we have been having lately, you can imagine how embarrassing it would be after coming home from buying new garden furniture if the chair you just bought collapses from underneath you.

It is not uncommon for people to be injured as a result of these sorts of accidents involving defective products, and in many cases you have to just laugh off the embarrassment; but on occasions you should be contemplating what legal action could be available for you to take if you are injured. By law, any goods purchased should be to satisfactory according to the Sale and Supply of Goods and Services Act.

The Sale and Supply of Goods and Services Act provides the legal basis for ensuring the safety of consumers in the UK. You can also look at the European Product Safety Directive which makes it much easier to pursue a claim against a manufacturer of a product which causes an injury.
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The full extent of injuries sustained in an accident is often overlooked; even by the sufferer. Whichever the type of accident you have suffered, be it a road traffic accident, a slip or trip, or an accident at work, the chances are that you have probably suffered some type of psychological effect of the accident if the injury and circumstances are serious enough.

Whilst the pain and suffering of a whiplash injury is at the forefront of your mind following a road traffic accident, the effects of the accident can lead to travel anxiety and nervousness which in some cases can have just as much an effect on your daily lifestyle as a physical injury. But is this something to be ignored in the hope you will get over it?
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