Substantial six figure settlement obtained for injured East Anglian driver

Richard Foyster, who heads the specialist personal injury team at Ashtons Legal, has obtained a substantial settlement for a man who was injured when another driver swerved into his path and collided with his vehicle.

The money will enable the injured driver to obtain the private medical treatment he needs to put his life back on track following the collision.

Richard comments: “This was an unusual set of circumstances. The key factor in bringing a successful claim is generally being able to prove that someone was at fault. In this instance, it was clear which driver caused the collision but by the time his vehicle hit others, he was already dead and was later shown to have had a heart attack.

“The fact that he was already dead at the time of impact gave his motor insurers the opportunity to put forward a defence of ‘automatism’, meaning that what happened was totally beyond the driver’s control so he was not at fault. For automatism to apply, a driver must not only be out of control at the time of impact but must also have had no knowledge of the fact that he or she might be about to be taken ill while behind the wheel and have been unaware that he or she was suffering from the particular condition which caused his or her death.

“This can be time-consuming and expensive to prove and in this instance the insurers, who would have been the ones needing to prove it, agreed to settle the claim without investigating further, thus minimising legal costs and enabling the driver making the claim to get the medical treatment he needed as soon as possible.”

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If you believe we can assist you when pursuing a Personal Injury claim, please get in contact with us on 0330 404 0777 or email enquiry@ashtonslegal.co.uk.