Personal car accident and work injury compensation claim at Injuries Direct

In the South West this year, almost £3m has been paid out in compensation to members of the workers union Unison.

The compensation was awarded to employees who were injured in accidents in their workplace.
Unison supported some of the more common types of claims such as back injuries, road accidents and falls.

It has been said by a Union spokesperson that in some instances its members had been left with sort of permanent disability.

A man who had a leg amputated following an accident at work has been awarded personal injury compensation for a second incident.

Robert Eric Spencer managed to successfully claim against his former employers for the second time, after proving that his latest accident would not have happened if it wasn’t for the injuries he had suffered in the first.

Mr Spencer was employed by Wincanton Holdings Ltd, a haulage firm when his first accident happened. After being involved in a collision in 2000, for which the company admitted liability for, he had to have his right leg amputated above the knee in February 2003.

After being fitted with a prosthetic limb and finding a new job, he had yet another accident in October 2003, when he tripped over an open drain cover at a petrol forecourt. As a result he badly damaged his left knee and is now confined to a wheelchair.

At his personal injury compensation claim hearing, the court ruled that Wincanton Holdings Ltd were 2/3rds responsible for the injuries that he suffered, despite him no longer working for them. This was because he would have had greater mobility if he had not lost his leg whilst working for them and therefore it was unlikely the second accident would have happened.

Mr Spencer’s final compensation amount is yet to be decided.

A man who made industrial deafness claims after he lost his hearing has been awarded compensation.

Alan Fox, 64, started to suffer from deafness after carrying out work on Sheffield’s iconic ‘hole in the road’ in the 1960’s. He also worked on the construction of Hallamshire Hospital in the mid 1970’s.

The construction worker was regularly exposed to the loud noises of pneumatic drills and power tools at both places of work. His claims were made because his employers had never provided him with appropriate hearing protection to prevent any hearing damage from occurring.

As a result Mr Fox has to wear hearing aids and suffers from permanent hearing loss. He struggles to hear conversations and higher-pitched sounds.

He said: “Both jobs involved digging and construction work so I was working with loud machinery such as pneumatic drills and JCB diggers. My loss of hearing means that I now struggle to hear everyday conversations and it can be quite embarrassing when I have to ask people to repeat themselves several times.”

Mr Fox was awarded four-figure industrial deafness compensation figures from both employers.

A woman has been awarded £1million clinical negligence compensation after doctors misdiagnosed a life-changing back condition.

Nicola Dalby, 43, has been left disabled and will be wheel-chair bound within a few years due to the delay in diagnosing and treating compressed nerves in her spinal cord.

Formerly a manager of a coffee shop, she now needs crutches to walk and suffers from clawed hands.

Miss Dalby went to doctors in October 2002 complaining of tingling fingers and dragging feet. On a visit to the GP she was diagnosed as having carpal tunnel syndrome, a fairly common form of repetitive strain injury. She was then referred to an orthopaedic surgeon to assess the illness further.

However, due to a number of procedural failures she was not seen for another nine months, until July 2003. By this point her condition had seriously deteriorated.

Commenting on her ordeal, Miss Dalby said: “The NHS needs to look at the errors in my case and ensure that they learn from this. I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through what I have had to.”

Her million pound clinical negligence compensation award pays for damages and the life-long future care that she will need.

A worker at a motorway service station who was attacked during an attempted robbery has received £36,000 injury compensation.

The case highlights the need for risk assessments to be carried out in order to protect staff from potential violence in the work place.

The woman was working as a cashier at the Roadchef services’ petrol station when three hooded youths entered the station. One of them asked to buy cigarettes, but when a colleague opened the till to hand him change, another one jumped over the counter to try and grab the money from it.

The worker, who was 69 years of age at the time of the robbery in March 2008, attempted to remove the hood of one of the youths so his face would be caught by the CCTV cameras. However he fought back and pushed her to the ground. She badly injured her knee as a result.

Her colleague managed to shut one of the youth’s fingers in the till and they left the petrol station with nothing. However, despite fighting back against the robbers, the incident may not have happened at all if the risks had been appropriately assessed beforehand.

The woman was awarded injury compensation after Roadchef admitted liability for not ensuring the safety of their employees. Following the incident she was forced to retire under medical grounds. She needed steroid injections to help with the pain in her knee and had to undergo physiotherapy and also suffers from arthritis.

A sufferer of Asperger’s syndrome has been awarded £3.32 million injury compensation after being hit by a car.

Gideon Sklair, 49, was crossing a road in South London with a blind friend when they were both knocked down by the oncoming vehicle in April 2007.

Although he suffered with Asperger’s syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Mr Sklair lived a relatively independent life until the accident. He was even able to travel around London alone and visit friends without problems.

However, he sustained serious spinal injuries which have greatly affected his mobility, and now experiences psychological problems. This means he requires 24-hour care and attention.

Mr Sklair currently lives with his elderly father who will eventually be unable to look after him. His injury compensation was awarded to take into account the care he will need for the rest of his life when his father is no longer around.

Another industrial worker has died of the asbestos-related disease mesothelioma.

David Hartley worked for years drilling, cutting and fitting asbestos sheets in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

Before his death he was reported saying that he used to see asbestos dust “flying in the air and falling in his face” during his time working for shop fitting business Byard and Green.

Mr Hartley was originally diagnosed with lung cancer after reporting a shortness of breath and fatigue to his doctor in April 2007. However, after undergoing six chemotherapy sessions doctors realised he was suffering with the irreversible lung cancer mesothelioma; cased by exposure to asbestos fibres.

In his statement, Mr Hartley said: “I can recall cutting corrugated asbestos sheeting and I had to remove (asbestos) lagging from the pipes. It was a very messy job. No one ever told me it was dangerous. I do not recall being given any warnings and I was never given a mask.”

His family may now be entitled to claim asbestos compensation for damages on his behalf.

A Cotswold farm business has been fined £65,000 after admitting their breaches of health and safety caused a man’s death.

Daylesford Organic Farms Ltd, run by the owners of agriculture vehicles company JCB, was also ordered to pay £27,500 in legal costs.

Anthony Cripps, 57, died after being run over by a seven-tonne JCB digger. He was riding in the digger’s bucket picking elderflowers to make lemonade. However, he was thrown out of the bucket and onto the ground when the vehicle took a bump on the field.

The company admitted that it had failed to ensure the safety of its employees after it was revealed that the driver of the vehicle, Gareth Trueman, had not been formally trained to use it.

Mr Cripps leaves behind a widow and three adult children. It is likely that they will be able to make an accident at work compensation claim on behalf of him following the company’s admission.

A Daylesford Organic Farms Ltd spokesperson said: “Since this tragic accident, a number of steps have been taken by the business to improve health and safety. We strive to minimise workplace risk at all times so that accidents like this can never happen again.”

Three people suffered a bus accident injury when a double-decker toppled over in London.

The bus collided with a lorry carrying rail tracks in the Battersea area of the city at around 8.30am on Wednesday morning.

Three passengers onboard the bus had to be cut out of the bus by fire crews. They were treated for serious injuries, whilst another 14 people suffered minor injuries including cuts and bruising.

The driver of the lorry was arrested for careless driving but he has since been bailed.

Witnesses have said how sections of the railway tracks were stuck out over the front of the lorry and crashed through the windows on the bus, causing it to topple onto its side.

One man onboard the bus said: “It was leaning over and then it seemed to fall in slow motion. People were screaming and everyone’s bags were falling down one side. After it fell over everything was quiet as everyone had realised what had happened.”

Transport for London has now launched a full investigation into the bus accident.

A housing society has been fined £50,000 after a boiler explosion killed a woman and her dog.

Severn Vale Housing Society Ltd took most of the responsibility for breaching regulations of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The plumber that they got to carry out the boiler work was also ordered to pay a £7,500 fine with £1,500 costs.

Christine Goodall died when the iron boiler behind her fireplace blew apart. She had lit her log fire causing the water in the boiler to heat up uncontrollably. The boiler should have been drained to prevent such an accident from occurring.

The boiler had originally been put out of commission in 1999, but Mrs Goodall had not lit the log fire since then so was unaware of the probable fatal consequences.

A HSE inspector said: “Anyone who thinks they might have a redundant back boiler in potentially dangerous circumstances should never light a fire in the fireplace until they have sought professional advice.”

It’s believed many people in the Severn Vale area still have the old style boilers as they cannot afford gas central heating.