I wish to make a bus shelter injury claim after the shelter collapsed on top of me and giving me spinal injuries – who is liable for my injuries?
Making a bus shelter injury claim is possible if you have been the victim of the careless actions of a third party who owed you a duty of care. You should not expect to sustain an injury at a bus shelter, and if you believe that a third party may have been negligent in performing their duty of care you could be eligible to claim compensation for your injuries. The compensation for a bus shelter injury you can claim may depend upon the circumstances of your accident and injury, and for this reason you are advised to consult a personal injury solicitor to assess your claim at the earliest opportunity and by doing so, you will greatly increase the possibility that your bus shelter accident will receive fair compensation.
The negligent party in your bus shelter injury claim can be determined by the circumstances surrounding your accident and injury. For instance, compensation for a bus shelter injury could be claimed against the bus operator if they owned the bus shelter and were responsible for its upkeep. They should have maintained the shelter in question and ensured that it was structurally sustainable in order to avert the possibility of a bus shelter accident occurring. Some exceptions may apply to this if – for example – your injury at a bus shelter was sustained at a shelter owned by another entity, in which case a claim will be made against their insurance policy.
However a bus shelter injury claim may not be possible in certain circumstances if – for example – you were partially liable for your own accident and injury. This could be the situation if the safety shelter was cordoned off for being unsafe but you used it regardless, in which case you could be liable for your own bus shelter accident for neglecting to heed warnings. You may also be considered to be liable for your injury at a bus shelter if you did not seek immediate medical attention following your accident and your injuries had difficulty healing or deteriorated as a result. You could still be entitled to claim compensation for a bus shelter injury in this circumstance – however the amount to which you may be entitled can be reduced in order to reflect your own negligence.
To establish which party is liable for your injury at a bus shelter or determine whether a claim is worth pursuing further, you are advised to consult a personal injury solicitor at the earliest opportunity following your accident and injury. A solicitor can assess your bus shelter accident, determine the amount of compensation you are entitled to claim and assist in gathering evidence to support a claim. It should be noted that your compensation for a bus shelter injury could be reduced if contributory negligence is a factor, and if reduced significantly a claim may not be worth your while to pursue. For this reason, you are advised to contact a solicitor regarding a bus shelter injury claim at the earliest opportunity following your accident.