Injured on public transport
Advice
You can claim damages for a multitude of public transport injuries. Any operator, driver, conductor or supporting staff on public transport, owes you the passenger a duty of care throughout the entire journey. Any injuries caused by a public transport based vehicle braking too hard or not giving the passengers time to take a seat is seen as negligence of this duty. From poor driving to being scalded by a hot drink, whiplash injuries or severe head/brain damage; if your injuries were causd by poor driving then a claim can be made.
Claims are made through the public transport provider’s public liability insurance or policy of motor insurance. If you sustained an injury as a result of an attack from another passenger, you may make a Criminal Injuries Claim for personal injury compensation. Any public transport provider is liable for the actions of their driver’s negligence. Your travel on public transport is covered by the Public Service Vehicles (Conduct of drivers, inspectors, conductors and passengers Regulations Act 1990).
This act also specifies an additional duty of care on the drivers of passenger vehicles (bus, tram, train etc) as passengers are less restrained on board (i.e., no seatbelts). If you feel the driver missed warning signs, was speeding, driving recklessly or endangering yourself and passengers around you in any way then you should consider a claim as this constitutes a breach of the Act.
If you were in a taxi, remember to get the vehicle registration number, taxi company name and address, and the name of the driver. Like most personal injury claims, the compensation received entirely depends on the severity of the injury and the impact it has had on your day-to-day life as a result.
How we can help
Lestons have specialist teams who deal with claiming compensation. Upon taking on your case our first action will be request that the travel company forward us the CCTV coverage (virtually every public transport system is equipped with CCTV coverage) to determine what happened. The caseworker will review the CCTV footage and discuss their findings with you. If there has been a fault by their driver then our legal team will appoint a suitable consultant to assess your situation, they are privately contracted by us (and therefore their cost would be classed as a disbursement). To quantify the potential claim in regard to mental trauma we would suggest an additional report from our psychological team.
The claim will consider two types of damages:
- General damages- this compensates the victim for the pain and suffering endured, and for the loss of enjoyment of life as a result of the negligent act.
- Special damages- this compensates the victim for any personal costs incurred as a result of the negligent act. It can also cover any additional costs required in the future such as remedial surgery to remedy the mistake, mental suffering and so on.
To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by taking advantage of our free consultation service, activated by the link at the top of the page, should you wish to start a case the caseworker will send you the suitable payment link. Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our legal team and medical consultant and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.