Archives

Roundabouts are natural hotspots for accidents. Even the most confident of drivers can struggle with staying in the correct lane on a roundabout they’re not familiar with, and drivers also have a tendency to join a roundabout without correctly checking for oncoming traffic.

The major problem with roundabout accidents is that, on occasions, it can be difficult to tell exactly who is at fault. If someone goes in to the back of you on the entrance to a roundabout, or someone pulls out on you whilst you were already on the roundabout, the other driver should be at fault. But what about if the other diver changes lanes on a multi-lane roundabout and hits your vehicle? Or what if you go in to the back of someone because they sharply pull across you and cut you up?

In these circumstances, you may need to rely upon any of the following to prove your case:
Read More

.For the purposes of this article I am going to discuss the law that is applicable for an accident involving a works vehicle. I’m going to cover what happens if you are injured because the vehicle is broken or defective as oppose to a general road accident – unless the accident was caused due to a defect.

A vehicle provided by your employer is classed as work equipment, and is therefore subject to The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. This hugely important piece of legislation puts an important duty on your employer to make sure that work equipment that is provided to you is, in essence, safe to use.

I will quote some of the important parts of the regulations:

5.1 – “Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.”

5.2 – “Every employer shall ensure that where any machinery has a maintenance log, the log is kept up to date.”
Read More

Whilst the majority of road accidents are fairly easy to resolve when it comes to establishing who is at fault, accidents involving roundabouts and lane changing can sometimes prove to be difficult. Unless you have an honest Defendant driver who is willing to hold their hands up and accept they’re wrong, or unless you have an eye witness evidence or CCTV on your side, it could end up being one word against the other.

For the topic of this blog I will discuss people cutting other drivers up on roundabouts at exits. It came to me because just this morning a lunatic with a caravan decided to stick to the outside lane when going right round a roundabout. He/she therefore drove straight across my exit. Thankfully, being what I’d class as a fairly experienced driver with a keen eye for hazard spotting given my line of work, I clocked that he/she was going to do it way before the vehicle cut across my path. I had more than enough time to come to a halt and bang my horn in frustration at him.
Read More

Just so you know, the reason I’m writing about skidding accidents is because I’m rather confused – it’s a summer evening here in our midlands based office and for reasons that just don’t seem to make sense, its hailing! In the middle of summer!  Our weather seems to have gone crazy in recent years, and hail in the middle of summer just doesn’t make sense.

Its heavy, and the roads are pretty waterlogged, so driving conditions are dangerous in places. As such, we all need to adapt as drivers to the conditions we are driving in – so in periods of wet weather when the road is slippery, we need to take extra care. This means slowing down and increasing the distances between vehicles.

So what happens if a car skids and causes an accident? What if traffic suddenly slowed and a driver brakes but loses their grip due to the road conditions and crashes in to another vehicle? Is it just one of those things? Can you blame someone for the weather? Well a driver cannot normally use the excuse that the road was wet as a defence to the claim – the Highway Code states that you have to keep a greater distance in slippery conditions.
Read More

If you are involved in an accident as a passenger, and a collision took place, you generally should have a successful claim. As a passenger, unless you did something reckless like pulled the handbrake or distracted the driver or had some kind of impact on the accident, you shouldn’t be at fault. If one car hits another and you are a passenger in either of the vehicle, you should be able to make a claim.

The reason why I highlight the point of there being a collision is that, for a collision to take place, someone must have been at fault in the vast majority of circumstances. If there isn’t a collision, say you are a passenger on a bus and the bus suddenly stops, then you may not have such a strong case. It all depends on the reason as to why the bus stopped. If it stopped because another driver negligently pulled out of a side road, then it isn’t really the fault of the bus. If the other driver can’t be traced, it could be difficult to claim against them directly.
Read More

If you have been injured and you were not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, can you still make a claim for compensation? In simple terms the answer is yes, you still may be able to make a claim. You should of course be wearing a helmet if you are on a bicycle or motorbike. The same concept also applies to work accidents in terms of wearing a hard hat where neccessary. There is a possibility that the Defendant (the other driver, an employer etc) may allege something called contributory negligence. This can reduce the compensation that you are entitled to; however this does not normally wipe out your compensation in its entirety.

It may be works practice or rules to wear a hard hat at all times whilst on site. Say you forgot to wear your hard hat and you sustained a head injury when an object fell. In this case it is likely that an element of contributory negligence would be found by a court. You can still claim and recover compensation, as there may still be negligence in that an object fell, putting employees at risk of sustaining injury. If contributory negligence is agreed or found by a court, your compensation would be reduced.
Read More

Well, as always, it’s all circumstantial – so you will probably need to give us a call and we will be able to better advise as to whether it’s something you may be eligible to make a personal injury claim for. With most law firms now taking 25% of people’s compensation and charging you for insurance, you will probably find our better deal more appealing. But until you call us, here is some insight in to scenarios where you may have a claim for compensation:
Read More

Motorways can be dangerous places – for the obvious reasons that there are speeding cars in three separate lanes. You tend to get a lot of ‘idiot drivers‘ as well who take the law in to their own hands when it comes to speed, and have no recollection of that magical little switch on the side of the steering wheel that sends out signals to other drivers that you are indicating to change lanes!

So we as expert personal injury lawyers end up taking on a lot of claims for compensation caused by motorway accidents. The absolute classic one is the situation when traffic slows down quickly. Apparently the car behind always ends up braking just that little bit harder than the one in front; so you end up with a line of cars all braking more than each other until the vehicles further at the back are slamming on to the extent that one of them may fail to stop.
Read More

It’s a well known fact that many people don’t take as much care to look out for cyclists and motorcycle riders as they should do. We take on a heck of a lot of personal injury claims for riders who have been hit by cars emerging from side roads, turning in to their paths, or changing lanes in to their paths without looking. People aren’t paying enough attention to the most basic of driving instructions: mirror, signal, manoeuvre!

So what happens when someone opens a car door in to your path? It’s known as a bit of a satirical situation, and has been played out in plenty of comedy films and TV shows, but when it happens to someone, the injuries can be devastating. You hit a door at even at low speed and you can end up either smashing through the glass or going over the handlebars and landing hard on the ground.

You have a fairly strong case if this happens to you. There is a duty on anyone getting out of a car to check their surroundings to make sure that the door will not be opened in to the path of someone. Its common sense. So if you are injured because this has happened to you, we should be able to help you out with a claim for compensation.
Read More

We get a lot of enquires from people who have been injured in an accident on a bus. Whether you have a claim or not can commonly come down to one simple question: was there a collision?

If there was a collision with another vehicle, you should have an excellent claim. The reason is because the fault should lie between either or both of the parties involved. Vehicles don’t just crash in to each other for no reason… not normally anyway. As such, someone, or both drivers, are at fault.

What if the collision was with a building, or a lamppost or other object? Well if the bus driver is at fault, you have a good chance of making a claim against the bus company. Essentially, as long as someone is at fault, and there is viable insurance to potentially claim from, we should be able to pursue a claim for you.
Read More