The man, (Mr A), worked as a delivery driver and was delivering a sofa with a colleague. It was a sunny day, around 11.45am and the roads were dry. Mr A drove the 7.5 tonne lorry he was using for delivery and pulled up outside the house to which the sofa was being delivered.  He parked the lorry towards the oncoming traffic and put his hazard warning lights on.  Mr A and his colleague took two pieces of the sofa into the recipient’s house and then went back to the lorry for the third, which was the largest piece.  He took one end of the sofa and then had to walk back into the road slightly for his colleague to take the other end.  He checked there was no oncoming traffic and moved into the road. Ten seconds later, a car came towards Mr A and hit him on hip, back and buttocks.   Mr A stumbled and dropped the sofa.  The car, which Mr A believes was travelling faster than the 30-mile per hour speed limit, did not stop and did not return to see what he had hit – even though Mr A believes that the driver would have known he had hit something and that the car’s wing mirror was hanging off after it had hit him.  Mr A reported the accident to the police and a witness statement was given, confirming Mr A’s report, by his delivery colleague.

Mr A suffered a fractured hip and has developed severe back pain since the accident.  He has seen several surgeons and has had physiotherapy, which he has found counteractive. Mr A has never recovered from his accident and takes painkillers daily.  He says he has “good days and bad days”.  Mr A lost his job at the company at which he worked as he was unable to carry out his duties and can now only work six to eight hours a week on light duties.

Graysons applies for compensation from MIB

Graysons took on the case, applying to the MIB for compensation.  Unfortunately, the MIB would not make an offer and refuted some of Mr A’s evidence, including the speed of the oncoming vehicle, and said that he wasn’t wearing hi-vis clothing.  The MIB was not able to secure any independent witnesses to refute Mr A’s claim.

The case was on-going for some time and Graysons eventually had to appeal the MIB’s decision. The case was taken on by the arbitrator, Frank Burton QC, who accepted Mr A’s evidence, and that of his colleague, as correct and took on the fact that Mr A had made over twenty thousand deliveries in the eight years that he had been working as a delivery driver – without any accidents.  Mr A had also been driving for 20 years with no accidents.  The arbitrator said that he was satisfied that because Mr A had been in the road for a period of up to 10 seconds, it was negligent of the untraced driver to have hit him, as a “reasonable prudent and competent motorist would have been aware from the hazard warning lights that the delivery van was making a delivery and obviously because its front was facing the oncoming traffic, then the car driver should have been vigilant for the possibility of delivery men at the rear”.  He said that “a greater degree of caution should have been extended when overtaking the vehicle”.  The arbitrator further found that the accident did not happen because the driver had not seen Mr A, but “because he misjudged the amount of space required to overtake both the lorry and Mr A and drove so close to him so as to clip him with his nearside wing mirror”.

Arbitrator says MIB should pay compensation

The arbitrator decided that Mr A should accept 25 percent liability and should receive 75 percent of any award.  The case then had to go to adjudication with the MIB to decide on the amount of compensation to be paid.  Belinda was able to secure a 6-figure sum for Mr A, which was almost double what he had expected in the first instance.  He said:

“Belinda was fantastic and was on the ball at all times.  The MIB is a law unto itself, but I am really happy with the compensation secured by Belinda.  I cannot fault her.”

You can find further information about making a road traffic accident claim on our website, or contact us to make an appointment for a free of charge meeting in which we can discuss your case.