Case study: Pedestrian hit by car

Battens Solicitors has recently achieved a five-figure compensation award for a grandmother injured whilst crossing the road, after collecting her granddaughter from a dance class.

The Claim

On a February evening in 2024, our client parked her vehicle across the street from the venue of the dance class as there were no available parking spaces in the dance studio’s car park.  

After collecting her granddaughter, and whilst crossing the road to get back to her car, our client and her granddaughter were struck and thrown into the air by a car. The driver of the car claimed that she did not see the pair crossing the road as the sun was particularly low at that time and obstructed her vision. Nearby CCTV footage captured the accident in full.

Fortunately, the granddaughter suffered no physical injuries.  Our client, however, bore the brunt of the collision and suffered a partially punctured lung, a dislocated elbow and arm, loose teeth, a fractured jaw, cracked ribs, and severe bruising and cuts across her face and body. She also suffered psychologically from the experience she had been through.

Expert evidence was obtained from a range of different medical experts including a dentist, orthopaedic surgeon, psychologist and a plastic surgeon to assist us in putting together a claim for compensation for the various injuries and financial losses our client suffered as a result of the accident.

The claim included reimbursement of the cost of complicated dental work, including reconstructing a broken bridge, and the notional cost of care provided by family members, who assisted our client with day-to-day tasks such as shopping and cleaning, which she was unable to manage herself until she recovered from her injuries.

Argument

Liability was never admitted by the insurers for the car driver, who argued, following their review of the CCTV footage, that our client should have crossed in a more appropriate place.

This was supported by the police collision report which stated that our client should have taken greater care when crossing the road.

However, we maintained that the greater onus should be on the road user, as there is a greater risk of a serious injury being caused to a pedestrian by a road vehicle such that motorists should take particular care where vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, may be at risk.

Given the blinding nature of the sun that day, maintaining that higher standard of care would have included the driver taking adequate precautions, such as slowing down, to ensure that they were aware of what was on the road ahead of them, and, notwithstanding the liability dispute, the claim ultimately settled.

Outcome

Despite the fact that liability was never accepted by the driver or her insurers, our argument was sufficiently persuasive that a five-figure offer was eventually made to settle our client’s claim that we felt would adequately compensate her for everything she had been through and all the expenses she had incurred.

The driver’s insurer also paid our client’s legal costs.

If you have suffered an injury that you believe was caused by someone else, please contact our Personal Injury team by emailing [email protected] or calling 0800 652 8373.