When we become injured in an accident that wasn’t our fault, making an injury compensation claim is likely to be one of the last things on our mind. Mostly, we’ll be focusing all of our attention and energy on recovering from any injuries we have sustained. However, when we do recover, we may then decide that making an injury compensation claim is a possibility.

With most accidents, the injured party has a three-year limit in which they are able to make an injury compensation claim. However, in cases such as GBH where somebody has been charged for the offence, those involved normally have two years to make a claim. Depending on the age of those involved and the type of accident, this limit may vary.
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Yesterday there was a huge gas explosion in a bunch of terraced houses in the Irlam area of Salford, Manchester. The explosion happened at 7.09am this morning turning four terraced houses into a pile of rubble. 11 people survived the gas explosion; six of those were pulled from the rubble by a team of 40 fire-fighters and other emergency services. The most seriously injured person from the explosion was a 76-year-old woman who was taken to hospital with life threatening injuries and 30 per cent burns.

Other people injured in the explosion included a pregnant lady and a small child, a gentleman who was hit on the head when his ceiling collapsed and two adults and three children who were recued from the rubble but escaped with minor injuries. Emergency services have now evacuated the area where the explosion took place until a further investigation is carried out. An estimated 200 houses have been evacuated. The explosion that took place early this morning was said to have been heard from a distance of five miles.
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A night out around our city centre is something a lot of us look forward to every week. It’s the end of the week and all we want to do is go out, relax and have a few drinks with friends. Especially around this time of year with events such as Halloween, Bonfire night, Xmas and New Years Eve coming up.

Events such as Halloween are celebrated around the world, and are one of the major diary events in pubs and clubs around the UK. Nights such as these are expected to bring out twice the expected amount of party-goers than on an average night out. With these increased numbers of party-goes out in your city centre it is likely that the queues to get in bars and clubs will be longer than usual.

With the amounts of people in the clubs the unfortunate event of an accident occurring increases, meaning that extra staff are needed on duty to keep accidents and any trouble to a minimum. Additional changes such as having extra door men on and more glass collectors can prevent some of the most drastic accidents. The smallest spillage on a dance floor might cause some body to trip and fall which may result in a serious injury.
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When we start a new job, we should be taken through the necessary healthy and safety training by our new employer. This usually includes fire safety training, general health and safety in the work place, and manual handling training. Depending on your job role, there may be other types of training that you are also shown. Although training can be boring for those taking part, it is essential you do it to help prevent you from being involved in accidents at work.

One of the types of training that all employees should be shown is manual handling training. This is where staff are shown how to lift heavy objects in a way that won’t cause damage to any muscles. No matter what job role you have, manual handling training is important, because at some point in your job role, you may be required to lift a heavy object.

All employers should keep a file on the types of training their staff have been shown, which are legal documents, and should be signed and dated by the employee to show that they fully understood and took part in the training. In the instance of an accident, the employer will then be able to show when their employee last had manual handling training.
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We’ve all had a good laugh at some of the stories in the news…but this is the one that has probably made me laugh the most in a long time. The Royal Mail has sent a letter to a family threatening to discontinue their service to their house due to a recent attack on their Postman by Lana the Tortoiseshell Cat. Her letterbox attacks on the postman prompted the Royal Mail to take further action.

To the family, Lana is a friendly cat but to postman Andrew Goater she is his worst nightmare. Mr Goater was scratched by Lana’s claws when he put his hand through the letterbox. As a result of the attack the Royal Mail has ordered her owners to keep her away from the front door or they face a ban on deliveries to their home.

When commenting on the issue Mr Goater said: “Normally you hear about postmen being attacked by the dog but this cat just came out of nowhere. It was a really vicious scratch.”
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We are all aware that the speed we are travelling at can depend up on whether or not we become involved in a road traffic accident. The speed limit determines whether or not we are able to stop when a vehicle or pedestrian appears in front of us. In the most populated areas with street lights, the speed limit is 30 mph unless specified differently.

Most of us stick to the speed limit, although there are some drivers who fail to stick to the law on speeding. Speeding is a high factor in the amount of accidents on our roads, especially in wet and icy weather conditions. There are always adverts on the TV created by the government to make drivers aware of what difference travelling at 30mph can make to travelling at 40mph.

The government and local councils recently turned a number of speed cameras off because they weren’t catching many offending drivers, so what a waste of money! Today, some of those cameras are being turned back on, due to an increase in the amount of motoring offences.
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Going to work for most of us is part of life, whether we love it or hate it, it’s something we have to do. We need money to pay the bills, and working is the way to earn that much needed money. Whatever job role you have you expect to be safe whilst at work. Whether you work as a receptionist or a contractor it should be in your employer’s interest to ensure your safety whilst at work.

Upon starting a new job role there are numerous amounts of training that you should go through with your employer. They should go through fire training with you, this means showing you what to do in the unfortunate event of a fire drill. They should also show you the basic health and safety training. Part of this training includes manual handling; this is where employees are shown the safest way to lift objects. This is essential no matter what your job role, as a receptionist you may need to lift heavy delivery boxers, or in a job role such as a builder where you are working with heavy equipment on a day-to-day basis.
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Sport is a huge part of our culture in the UK, whether the sport you choose to take part in is football, basketball, swimming, etc. It is likely that you will have taken part in some kind of sport within your life. Sport is taught to children from when they begin their educated life at primary school, so it’s something they are brought up with.

With us following the lives of sporting heroes such as David Beckham and Jessica Ennis in the news, it’s easy to see that this is a subject of great interest to us all, throughout the UK, and around the world. Football of course is the most popular sport, hundreds of thousands of us follow it everyday. Those that do will see how easily a sporting injury can take place.

Sporting accidents can cause a variety of injuries, the most common are broken bones and torn ligaments due to the impact of a head on collision or a fall, they can also cause whiplash injuries. Some sporting injuries are easily recovered from, some not so easy. If you break your leg in a sporting accident for example it will be months before you fully recover and are able to take part in that part or any fitness routine for a long time.
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For those of us who love to keep up with the latest movies, a trip to our local cinema is not far from ordinary. The cinema makes for a great night out, especially now those cold winter nights are drawing in. A lot of cinemas now offer a membership card where you pay so much a month and can see as many films as you like.

Like any other venue, cinema complexes have a number of health and safety rules that they must follow in the unlikely event that an accident happens at their venue. They will have staff that have undergone the necessary training if anybody does become injured whilst visiting their venue.

Even though an accident occurring in your local cinema may seem extremely unlikely, unfortunately, things like this do happen. There will be staff on site that carry out regular checks to prevent any possible hazards, however spillages can occur at any time and if they are not cleaned up straight away they can become a hazard.
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Like any other leisure centre, water parks and their staff have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their customers. They must follow the accurate procedures in making sure that all aspects of health and safety are taken care of. This means making sure that all pools have the correct temperature and correct level of chlorine in them. 

Along with all of the pool checks they carry out, they must also make sure that there are no possible hazards such as spillages on the floor that people may slip on. They must also have a certain amount of lifeguards on shift to ensure the safety of those in the pool. All lifeguards that work at the water park must have the correct qualifications and experience so that in the unfortunate event of an incident, they know what to do.

For most of us, a day out at a water park is an exciting day that we choose to spend with either friends or family, and creates moments of enjoyment that we will cherish throughout our lives. However there are the rare cases when accidents do occur, and some can cause injuries that we remember for all the wrong reasons.
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