On 14 January 2017, our client, an engineer, was driving down Union Street in Glasgow. His two daughters were sat in the back of the vehicle. He stopped at a set of traffic lights, preparing to turn left at the next junction. His car was now at the front of a queue of traffic, and directly behind him was a bus. As the lights changed and our client began to turn left, a pedestrian suddenly walked out into the road in front of him, causing him to apply the brakes. However, the bus, which was intending to carry on forward, didn't brake in time and collided with the rear of our client's vehicle.
Police attended the scene and took details.
The consequences
The impact of the collision caused our client to suffer a back and neck injury, for which he had to visit the hospital and his GP. His GP provided him with painkillers to help during the recovery period. This period lasted for seven to ten days after the accident.
Both his daughters experienced back pain as a result of the collision. Although they didn't have to attend hospital, our client phoned NHS 24 for them to receive advice on their injuries. They were both provided with ibuprofen for several days, and our client considered that, like him, they had both made a full recovery seven to ten days after the accident.
The children's seats, which had been manufactured into the vehicle itself, had been destroyed in the accident and needed to be replaced.
The settlement
The driver instructed Thompson's road traffic accident solicitors through his union, Usdaw. We intimated a claim to the third-party insurers.
The third-party insurers had previously made him a direct offer of £750 for his injuries as well as £500 each for his daughters. However, he was not satisfied with this amount, and following our advice, he rejected the offer. Instead we put a counter offer to the insurers, who responded to this with an improved offer of £900. We discussed this again with our client, who instructed us to reject it. We then put forward another counter proposal of £1,000, which the insurer accepted. The case was settled on 26 April 2017.