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Road Traffic Accidents Involving Emergency Vehicles

If you or a member of your family is suffering from a personal injury caused by a road traffic accident involving an emergency vehicle, our specialist personal injury lawyers may be able to help you claim compensation. Contact us today on 0800 032 8511 for claim advice, or by completing a claim enquiry form.

Establishing Liability in an Accident with an Emergency Vehicle
How to Make a Road Accident Compensation Claim
Compensation
Our Personal Injury Lawyers

Successful Claims for Accidents Involving Emergency Vehicles

Establishing Liability in an Accident With an Emergency Vehicle

As with any type of road accident, it is important to establish who was at fault in order to decide whether or not a claim can be made.

Drivers of emergency vehicles, as any other road users, have a responsibility to exercise reasonable care to others whilst driving. If they fail to act responsibly and someone is injured as a result, that person may be entitled to claim compensation.

All other drivers have a duty to pay attention to the warning signals displayed by emergency vehicles and take relevant action. It is sometimes necessary for emergency vehicles to make unusual manoeuvres or ignore traffic signals in order to answer an emergency call efficiently, and other drivers must do all they reasonably can to allow them right of way.

It is for this reason that even if a person was driving in accordance with traffic signals at a safe speed, they can sometimes be found partially responsible when involved in an accident with an emergency vehicle, if they failed to take note of the warning signals.

You may also be involved in a road accident as the driver of an emergency vehicle, or when you are a passenger in one.  If someone else was at fault in the incident it may be possible for you to claim compensation for any personal injury you sustain as a result.

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How to Make a Road Accident Compensation Claim

If a road accident with an emergency vehicle does occur and someone is injured, the law requires that the police are informed as soon as possible. They will record the details and compile a report, which is of great importance if a compensation claim is pursued.

It is also advisable to record as much information as possible, including any photographs, witness details, medical treatment and receipts for related expenses.

For any personal injury matter, you should seek specialist legal advice. In every case, medical evidence will be required, and it is necessary to show that the person you are making a claim against owed you a duty of care, that they breached that duty of care (were negligent), and that the injury you sustained was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of that negligence. A specialist personal injury lawyer will be able to assist you and provide guidance at all stages of your road accident claim.

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Compensation

If your claim is successful, and our Legal Line solicitors will be working hard to ensure that this will be the case, you will be entitled to two elements of a compensation award.

The first is for the pain and suffering you may have gone through and what is known as loss of amenity. This is called general damages and can include an award for your inability to do things after the accident that you used to be able to do before, eg, wash your car, look after your garden, walk the dog, etc. The award for loss of amenity can be for a short period after an accident or for ever if that is what the medical evidence supports.

The second element of a compensation award is for your losses and expenses and is known as special damages. It is important to keep receipts for any expenditure you have related to the accident, so that these can be reclaimed. The aim is to put you back in a position financially as if the accident had never occurred.

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Our Personal Injury Lawyers

At The Legal Line, our lawyers are experts in all areas of personal injury and have extensive experience in recovering compensation for victims of road traffic accidents involving emergency vehicles. They can provide specialist accident claim advice on how a claim can be pursued.

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Successful Claims for Accidents Involving Emergency Vehicles

Our lawyers have assisted many people injured in accidents where an emergency vehicle was involved, whether they were driving one at the time, a passenger, pedestrian, cyclist or in another vehicle.  Details of some of the claims we have assisted with can be found in our news and success stories sections, with examples also detailed below:

• Our client was driving an ambulance in the course of his work when he suffered an accident. Whilst responding to an emergency call, he was proceeding along a road with a 30mph limit at 40mph, in order to reach the patient within the required time.

  Unfortunately there was an unmarked speed bump in place, with no signs or cones to alert road users to its presence It was also dark and the road lighting was poor. The ambulance hit the bump and launched into the air, causing our client to be thrown around roughly in the cab. He suffered injuries to his neck and back and dislocated his shoulder. As a result of the accident the claimant required time off from work, physiotherapy treatment and assistance with personal and household tasks for several months.

  Our lawyers made a personal injury claim on his behalf against the contractors who installed the speed bump, as they failed to ensure that it was marked out for motorists to see. They recovered £20,000 compensation for our client, in respect of his injuries and losses.

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