A driver of a HGV has been awarded more than £40,000 in personal injury compensation, after he suffered serious injuries due to an accident at work.
Mr Roy Nelson, who is from Cornwall, was carrying out his everyday duties on a construction site along with other staff members and was trying to unload numerous floor tresses from the vehicle he had been transporting them on. However, the pile of floor trusses collapsed, causing Mr Roy Nelson to fall from the back of the truck and on to the ground.
Mr Roy Nelson sustained severe personal injuries, including a fractured vertebra, ribs and collarbone due to the accident at work.
Mr Roy Nelson proceeded with legal action to enable him to claim personal injury compensation. However, during the proceedings, Mr Nelson’s employers admitted full responsibility and liability for the accident at work and injuries Mr Nelson sustained.
Mr Nelson’s solicitors have commented on this serious accident at work and said:
Most falling injuries occur at heights below 10’. Although a worker may not fall far, he has less time to react and is more likely to land badly. Had the truck bed been long enough, Mr Nelson could have stood to the side of the trusses while unloading, and had adequate training been provided, the injury could have been easily avoided.
A man who was a former haulage contractor who was left paralysed due to an accident at work, whilst working in Spain, has been awarded personal injury compensation, which exceeds £300,000.
Mr John Edmonds from Gressenhall, who was self employed, sustained serious spine injuries due to the accident at work at the Ford Motor Show, which was being held in Madrid in June 2007.
Mr Edmonds was requested to go to the Ford Motor Show and back 9 trailers into the compound and ensure that the trailers were returned to England safely. However, it was not Mr Edmonds Job to load the trailers, but for other staff members to carry out. When Mr Edmonds went to check the trailers were secure he found that there were some unsecured lengths of rigging on top of the load, but the loading staff had left for the day. Mr Edmonds then proceeded to climb up the side of the trailer to secure the load, as there were no forklifts or ladders available.
Mr Edmonds grabbed what he believed to be a long piece of rigging, but it came away, he then fell from the vehicle to the floor. Mr Edmonds sustained severe spinal injuries, described as spinal dislocation and a spinal cord injury, he also fractured his left arm and suffered scalp lacerations. Mr Edmonds was left a tetraplegic and requires a dosage of medication and depends entirely on his family for their care and support.
Mr Edmonds, who is now 61 years old, started legal proceedings against his employers and was awarded £300,000 in compensation for injury.
The driver of a coach has recently been awarded compensation for injury, after he was injured due to an accident at work whilst helping a passenger unload extremely heavy luggage from the coach at Heathrow Airport.
The coach driver, Mr Thomas Hughes from Castle Vale in Birmingham, proceeded with legal action after he stopped working for the travel company. Mr Thomas Hughes claimed that his employers failed to provide him with adequate scales to allow coach drivers to test the weight of any item of luggage which was to be loaded onto the vehicle that appeared to be excessively overweight.
Mr Hughes’ solicitors found that the company had breached the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 and that Mr Hughes’ employers would need to provide records to prove otherwise.
Mr Thomas Hughes’ employers denied that they did not know anything about the accident at work, claiming that Mr Thomas Hughes had not been on duty with his colleague and that he had not been injured.
Mr Hughes’ solicitors then requested a court order, which in turn forced the disclosure of tachograph records, which revealed that Mr Hughes’ injury to his back occurred 1 day earlier than initially thought, when both men had been on duty working on the same vehicle.
Mr Thomas Hughes’ medical records proved that his version of the accident at work was correct and employers eventually admitted liability for the injuries he sustained. Mr Hughes was awarded an undisclosed figure in personal injury compensation in an out of court settlement.
A driving examiner has been awarded personal injury compensation after he sustained injuries in what has been described as the ‘worst driving test incident of his career.’
Mr Andrew Carmichael, who is 35 years of age, sustained severe injuries due to the road traffic accident, including serious whiplash injuries, when he was taking Lisa Connolly on a driving Test.
Mr Andrew Carmichael states that he was thrown backwards and forwards during the accident, due to the fact that Lisa Connolly continuously braked sharply, which in turn caused another vehicle to take uncertain action. The car then stalled and Lisa Connolly started the car back up and built her speed up to approximately 25 miles per hour, continuing to break sharply and even used her left foot to brake the car on one occasion.
Mr Andrew Carmichael started proceedings to claim compensation for injury and whilst in court Mr Carmichael claimed that the driving incident was the worst he had experienced in the whole 12 years of him being a driving examiner.
It was also heard that Ms Lisa Connolly had taken in total 30 lessons prior to her driving test. However, Ms Connolly claims that she drove poorly due to being nervous on her first test.
Judge Lady Clark has commented on this situation and said:
“In my opinion, even in her own version of events, she was not in control of the car as she ought to have been her inexperience and nervousness is not a defence.” and nervousness is not a defence.
A 60 year old worker has received £120,000 for personal injury compensation this month, after an accident at work left the worker unable to work for more than 2 years.
The 60 year old man from Gateshead, who remains unnamed, sustained a broken heel after he slipped on a ladder that was attached to his van in February 2007.
It was heard that the workman was using the ladder to gain access to the roof rack on the roof of his van. Apparently this was part of his every day duties whilst employed for a Newcastle based company. Unfortunately, the weather was not so good and it had been raining, making his working environment slippery, which then caused him to fall. The unnamed man was left in a plaster cast for over 4 months due to the accident at work.
The 60 year old injured man is currently unable to work, as he now suffers from arthritis due to the injuries he sustained, but he hopes he will be able to return to work, in different employment in the near future.
The injured man has commented on this accident at work and said:
“It is difficult to believe such a simple accident can leave me so badly injured. I have been off work for two years now and I can only walk with pain. My heel has healed well but I’ve now developed arthritis which means I am in constant agony.
“I felt I should claim compensation because I have been forced to take such a long time off work and it is still uncertain that I will be able to return in the future.”
A member of the British Cycling Club, Mr Martin Beckingham, has been awarded personal injury compensation this month, after he sustained injuries in a road traffic accident while cycling on his bike.
The accident occurred on 4 February 2009 when he was cycling through Tilford Village with numerous cyclists when he was injured due to a pothole.
Mr Martin Beckingham suffered cuts and bruises, injuries to his face, a broken tooth and crown, which he then required dental work for and his bicycle was also damaged as a result of the accident.
Mr Beckingham pursued a claim for personal injury compensation, as he believes the accident was due to the Council’s negligence in maintaining the road. However, Surrey County Council denied any liability for the accident, claiming that Tilford Road has 3 monthly inspections and on the previous inspection before Mr Beckingham’s accident no defects to the road were found.
Surrey Council also claim that work had been carried out to the road by a contractor prior to the accident. They stated that the trench in the road was the responsibility of BT and the defect measured approximately 30 cm square and 40 cm in depth.
However, it was later revealed that the trench was in fact the responsibility of Sanska, who stated that their contractors, CDL were responsible for the trench in the road. CDL construction agreed to pay personal injury compensation to Mr Martin Beckingham.
A Bishop is considering claiming personal injury compensation from the police force, after claiming that he was assaulted.
Bishop Jonathon Blake was arrested by the police for taking pictures of his children reading on a roof top. Bishop Blake, 52 years-old, states that his children Nathan, who is 7 years old and Dominic who is 8 years old were taking part in a challenge set by the school where they had to be photographed reading a book in an unusual place.
However, Bishop Blake was arrested by 7 police officers, where they entered his property because the story of his children on the roof had hit the headlines in the media and many newspapers. The Bishop advised the police officers that his children were perfectly safe and they had been wearing a harness during the book reading.
Bishop Blake has commented on the incident and said:
“We are very conscious about safety. At no point were they in danger. There were lots of people who walked by and they didn’t have any concerns because they could see the harnesses.
“I was arrested without questioning and without any details being taken and without any ability to stop this waste of police resources. This was a gratuitous example of unintelligent and brutal policing.”
Bishop Blake claims that the arresting police officers brutally attacked him and that one officer punched him in the back. Bishop Blake is now considering suing the police for personal injury compensation.
This month, a workman has received personal injury compensation after he sustained injuries when he fell due to an accident at work.
It was reported the workman, known as Mr Michael Brand, 46 years-old, was removing moss from the roof of a warehouse 5 years ago in February 2004. He was removing the moss from the warehouse roof in preparation for a roof replacement. However, Mr Brand lost his footing and he slipped and fell through the skylight in the roof.
After the accident at work, Mr Brand commenced with legal proceedings against the owners and the occupiers of the warehouse, Mr Roy Allen and BOCM Pauls, an animal food manufacturer. However, both the owner and the occupier of the warehouse denied any liability for the accident.
Mr Brand sustained severe injuries due to the accident at work, including a fractured pelvis, punctured lung, tear to his liver, changes to his personality and worst of all Mr Brand suffered serious brain damage.
Mr Brand is unable to return to his employment following the accident at work and he has spent his life since the accident living inn a rehabilitation unit. After a lengthy battle, Mr Brand was eventually awarded £450,000 in personal injury compensation.
An injured man has received personal injury compensation after he was injured when he lost control of the vehicle he was driving on his way to work, due to an icy road.
The injured man, who remains unnamed, was on his way to work when the road traffic accident occurred. He turned off the main road he was travelling along into an access road which led to the car park where he worked. The main road had been gritted in the icy weather conditions, however, the access road had not been gritted. He lost control of his vehicle and sustained injuries as a result.
The man that was injured believes that the local council are responsible for the road traffic accident and the injuries he sustained, as they had not ensured safety for drivers in these icy weather conditions.
The injured man started legal proceedings in a bid to win personal injury compensation. The council claim that they employed a satisfactory system that provided information on where and which roads had been gritted and that it had only been primary roads gritted so far and secondary road gritting had not in fact taken place at the time of the road traffic accident.
The judge found that the length of time taken to grit the secondary road, such as this one, was far too long and that this was unacceptable.
A care worker has made a claim for personal injury compensation due to an accident at work after she was injured by a colleague who accidentally reversed into her with a vehicle owned by the company.
It was heard that the injured care worker, who remains unnamed, was removing some shopping from the boot of a car that parked outside her premises. Her colleague then switched on the engine of the vehicle and accidentally reversed into the care worker, knocking her to the ground.
The care worker sustained severe injuries as a result of the accident at work, including head injuries, a back injury and injuries to her groin and leg. The care worker had to have extensive treatment and surgery to place a skin graft. She was also unable to return to her previous role.
The injured care worker commenced with legal proceedings and employed an experienced legal team to help her win her claim for compensation for injury. The care worker did not blame her colleague, but held her employers responsible for the accident at work, as they are liable for the actions of her colleague.
During the proceedings, medical evidence and evidence of any losses the injured care worker had sustained were required. Negotiations were then made with the injured care worker’s employer and she was awarded a settlement of £110,000 for personal injury compensation.
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