Our client worked as a bus driver for Stagecoach at the time of the accident, which was caused by the poor judgement of a third-party driver.

In January 2017,  he had been driving his bus north on the B730, the Ayrshire road between the villages of Rankinston and Drongan.

As our client approached the junction to Sinclairston (to the right), he noticed a third party driver approaching quite fast. As it looked like the other driver was going to proceed straight into his path, our client slowed his bus down. The other vehicle turned left out of the junction, but because of some mud on the road, its wheels locked, causing it to skid into the bus's lane. The third-party vehicle and the bus collided. Our client had applied the bus's brakes and thinks, from what he can remember and from viewing his GPS tracker, he was travelling at either 17 or 19 mph at the time of impact.

Speaking to our client immediately after the collision, the third party driver said he had moved quickly out of the junction because he was trying to get in front of another vehicle coming the other way.

The consequences

On the day following the accident, our client experienced pain in his left shoulder and neck. Because of the pain, he visited his GP, who prescribed anti-inflammatories. These helped settle his neck pain, but he still felt discomfort in his left shoulder while lifting objects. The soft tissue neck injury lasted eight weeks.

The settlement

The claimant's union, Unite, referred him to Thompsons Solicitors.

Responsibility for the accident lay with the other driver, who pulled out of the junction when it was clearly not safe to do so. The third party insurers admitted liability and put forward an offer of £1,600, which our client accepted.