Last updated on November 24th, 2021 at 03:17 pm

The man, Mr M, worked as a steel mill hand. At the time of the accident, he was standing by one of the stations where hot rods are pushed through machinery as part of the milling process. Another operative pushed a red-hot iron through the station without warning and the rod went through Mr M’s leg and groin severing his femoral artery and causing significant burns to both legs and groin area.

Severe injuries after accident at work

Mr M contacted Graysons to see if he was entitled to any compensation and we took up his case.  Mr M’s injuries were severe, and the case was complex.  We had to obtain significant medical evidence from an orthopaedic surgeon, vascular surgeon, psychiatrist, plastic surgeon and occupational health expert.

We contacted Mr M’s employer, who admitted liability for the accident, but would not agree on the value of the claim.    We served his evidence on the employer, but the employer claimed that the Mr M was partly responsible for the accident and should accept contributory negligence of 40%, based on the fact that Mr M was in “the wrong place at the wrong time”.

Employer pursued for higher settlement

We were convinced that the employer’s claim was unreasonable and investigated the case more closely.  Witnesses confirmed that Mr M and others had stood in the location where he was impaled on other occasions and that it was only a matter of luck that no-one had been injured before. We challenged the employer and agreed to contributory negligence of just 15%.  The employer made various offers, all of which were rejected and so we planned to issue court proceedings.  Before we did, however, the employer made a final offer of £354,000 (£301,500 net of contributory negligence), which included an amount for physiotherapy.  We sought guidance from counsel and accepted the offer.  Mr M, who still worked for his employer, had been under great pressure to settle early, but our personal injury expertise, especially in claims against employers, helped Mr M to resist the lower claims and to proceed to obtain a settlement in excess of what would be reasonably expected at trial.

If you have had an accident at work and would like to know if you can claim compensation, contact one of our experts now.  You can also find out more about personal injury claims for accidents at work on our web pages.