The most common personal injury cases are usually some form of road traffic accident. At the Injury Lawyers we really do take a lot of road traffic cases on daily, with the majority of the cases not being too serious in nature. Unfortunately sometimes the accidents can be rather severe…

According to BBC reports (source) a major collision on the M8 motorway in Glasgow near Junction 15 brought traffic to a standstill late yesterday night, forcing authorities to close the road throughout the night and reopen early this morning.

According to the report the accident was the result of a vehicle travelling the wrong direction down the carriageway in to oncoming traffic! Police are yet to confirm the identity of the driver and have warned motorists to expect delays on the road and have made an urgent plea for eyewitnesses.
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The mirror.co.uk has reported the story of the lady who was the victim of a violent carjacking which left her fighting for her life. Caroline Jonhson has been left wheelchair bound after a drug addict stole her car whilst she was scraping ice from the wind shield (source).

Kevin Richardson, 34, drove off and dragged the 46 year old mother of four for a staggering 65ft before leaving her for dead on the road, frothing at the mouth and swearing at her behind the wheel. The theft of the vehicle is thought to be related to the offenders drug related habit as it is reported he and an associate where out all night looking for drugs when they targeted their victim.

Mrs Johnson fell in to a coma for weeks, with her heart stopping in the ambulance after sustaining horrific injuries including a collapsed lung and multiple fractures pelvis, arms, legs, lower back, and most of her ribs.
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Safety reviews are being conducted on all 1,800 bridges in Cumbria following severe flooding in the area. Six bridges have already collapsed in the area and a further bridge has been condemned due to suspicions it may be about to fall.

The collapse of the bridges and flooding of the area have caused chaos with people evacuated from their homes and some people have already been killed as a result. Amongst those was PC Bill Barker, who died on Friday morning when a bridge outside Workington collapsed.

According to the BBC, the conditions have forced the closure of schools and are playing havoc with commutes. Fire crews and structural engineers are monitoring the worst hit areas to ensure that buildings are safe.
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When we buy a product, primarily one that we ingest or apply to ourselves in some way, we are placing a significant degree of trust in the manufacturer that it is safe to use the product.

Manufacturers must put their products through rigorous testing in order to comply with health and safety regulations, and all products must be suitable for their intended use and should not cause harm or injury to the consumer using them.

Both the BBC and The Daily Mail have recently reported that Procter & Gamble have recalled around 120,000 bottles of Vicks Sinex Nasal spray after small traces of a bacteria were found in the product following routine testing (news source here and here).
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A traditional Bonfire night celebration may come to an end after two men suffered serious burns in a tar barrel explosion.

According to the BBC, the event involves flaming tar barrels being carried through Ottery St Mary in Devon and has been ongoing since the 17^th Century. It attracts as many as 20,000 people to the town.

However, according to police one of the crowd appears to have thrown an aerosol in to a barrel, causing an explosion. One of the men suffered serious facial burns and another received burns to his hand. In addition, a further 10 people received minor burn injuries.
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10 passengers who survived a crash on a Boeing 777 aircraft which occurred near Heathrow airport are to sue the aircraft manufacturer. The flight was travelling between Beijing and London in January 2008. All 152 passengers survived the crash but several suffered injury as a result of the incident.

According to the BBC a report is being conducted by the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (or AAIB) in to the accident but it has yet to be finalised. However, in the interim reports which it has produced on the cause of the crash it appears that both of the vehicles engines suffered from a reduced fuel flow as the plane was coming in to land and there is a belief that it is possible that ice may have accumulated in the plane’s fuel system.

The allegation being put forward by the injured parties is that the vehicle was defective and the expert reports  indicate that the fault may be common to other 777s as well, making it an actual manufacturing deficiency, rather than a one off fault.
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It seems that the tragedy of medical negligence has again hit the news, with BBC reporting of a Mother’s fatal heart attack after a drug was incorrectly administered.

According to BBC reports 30 year old theatre nurse Mayra Cabrera died of a heart attack shortly after giving birth to her son Zac in May 2004, after the drug Bupivacaine, which is supposed to be administered by epidural, was instead injected in to her arm by way of an intravenous drip. It is reported that fortunately baby Zac survived. (source).

The hospital in Swindon is now being prosecuted over alleged health and safety breaches and will be appearing at a magistrate’s court at a later date. An inquest in to the death has already concluded it as unlawful with the coroner making several recommendations including better labelling of drugs.
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A new fence may have been responsible for the death of a man whose car was hit by a train in North Yorkshire.

According to the BBC, Mr John Power, 54, died when his car went on to the railway tracks at Copmanthorpe in 2006.

An inquest which was being held in York heard how a new fence had been erected near the tracks six weeks prior to the accident and that, not only was the new fence not as visible as the previous fence, it did not indicated that there were railway tracks beyond it.

Mr John Milner, who lived locally and gave evidence at the inquest, also criticised the signage in the area which he felt failed to sufficiently alert drivers to the nearby railway line.
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If you have been keeping up with the news lately, you may have heard of the calls for law changes for sun tanning salons; in particular the unsupervised ones.

Personaly I am amazed there is such thing as an unsupervised tanning salon, given the nature of the service they provide!

Thesun.co.uk has reported of the 14 year old girl who earlier this year suffered 70% burns to her body after spending almost 20 minutes in a sun bed! (source).

The girl has placed £1 in a coin operated sun bed for five minutes before adding a further £3 for a further 15 minutes after she felt she was not getting tanned enough. She was rushed to hospital later that day with first degree burns to three quarters of her body and given treatment to rehydrate her body.
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Claiming for personal injury: anyone can do it! The simple formula required for a claim to be successful is that another person or party can be found negligent in their duty of care over others.

This negligence has then caused the victim to be injured or to have suffered in some way, whether physically or psychologically. And this duty of care should be something even more essential in a school…

If you have been keeping up with the news lately, you may have noticed the word ‘bullying’ been thrown about a lot recently. According to the BBC 47% of 14 year olds (almost half!) experience some form of bullying, government statistics have concluded (source).
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