Who pays for this?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Palfrem

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 11, 2005
Messages
2,965
Location
Solihull, near Birmingham
Car
W124 E36 AMG, G 300 GEL his, SLK 200 hers
BBC News - Good Samaritan's car destroyed after pair given shelter

Don't wish to debate whiplash here, but do we think that this unfortunate lady should be able to claim from the driver who caused the original accident?

This is a direct result of the original RTA

I can't see the Fire Service coughing up or the injured parties who were cut out.

Seems very unfair if this lady loses her NCD just for helping.
 
blooming heck, if that happened to me there would be no way id let a chainsaw near my car!
 
Apologies, I didn't realise that was one of the members only areas.

I'll brave the wrath of The Boss and quote it here in full

This happens all the time. It's all to do with covering their own ****s.

We attend crashes, most times the drivers are both out of the car. I USED to offer them a seat in a Police car if the weather was bad whilst we waited for Ambulance to arrive, won't anymore. The amount of people that suddenly have a "sore neck" on arrival of Ambulance is untrue. First thing Paramedics do is put them in a neck brace, then it's a case of not moving the "injured" party, so out come Trumpton who decide to cut the vehicle roof off.

I have stood and had a row with Paramedics and Chief Trumpton before as they wanted to cut the roof off of the Police car. I made the very valid point that the "injured party" was having a heated discussion with the other driver in the crash on my arrival, then stood talking on their phone and having a cigarette before they got into my vehicle, at no point had they mentioned any ****ing injury until asked by the Paramedic. I pointed out that the Constabulary would bill them for a new vehicle and won the discussion.

I have also been to a very minor rear shunt where there was no damage to the car in front, if the car that hit the vehicle was doing more than 10 miles an hour I would be amazed. Both vehicles were at the side of the road, other traffic was easily able to move round them.
On arrival the woman driver was crying her eyes out, unable to move due to the amount of pain she was in, her passenger was out of the car saying that there was hardly any impact, and that her friend is very dramatic. I try to reassure the driver that she is just in shock, to calm herself down and look at leaving the vehicle. I wasn't doing too bad, had managed to stop her crying and with the help of her friend was successfully persuading her to leave her car.
Next thing Retained Trumpton arrive with all horns blaring park in the middle of the bloody road then undo all the work I have done with the female, who starts sobbing uncontrollably. Next thing I know the Chief Trumpton Officer decides it's a good time for them to use the kit to cut off the roof, as they haven't had the chance for a while. As a result the whole road is closed to other cars, and the roof to a perfectly good driveable vehicle is being cut off, the woman is placed on a board then onto a trolley and into the Ambulance and is off to Hospital.
Trumpton bugger off, road can now be partially opened whilst I await vehicle recovery.
What should have taken 5 minutes turns into nearly 2 hours of pointless work at the scene

As the Officer in the case I have to then have to check on the "injury" to the female. Leave it 24 hours, call her, she says she was discharged from hospital within an hour with no injury.

Complete and utter waste of time.
 
Well, no offers of shelter seems to be the safest option,unless you have an SL or the likes with a full electric roof.
 
Well, no offers of shelter seems to be the safest option,unless you have an SL or the likes with a full electric roof.

Or you have a yearning to own a unique Spider version.
 
In reality the Woman who's car was wrecked should claim off the "passengers" car insurance, who will then claim off the lorry insurance, or as a last ditch claim off their Home insurance, public liability.
 
In reality the Woman who's car was wrecked should claim off the "passengers" car insurance, who will then claim off the lorry insurance, or as a last ditch claim off their Home insurance, public liability.

It's going to the stage now that if you happen to see an accident it's best to drive on and not help.

The fact that the firebrigade get so much money from each RTA they attend must have a link to all this...
 
"We can only apologise to Mrs Dunlop for the inconvenience..."


Ahmmmm.... 'inconvenience'... what an understatement.
 
The fact that the firebrigade get so much money from each RTA they attend must have a link to all this...

Nope - it's down to the amount of money the NHS and fire service have had to pay out in the past when people have claimed that injuries have been aggravated when being removed from cars. There have been some rare cases of casualties being paralysed through careless removal from vehicles and you can imagine the payouts for those. It means that, as far as Sussex is concerned, as soon as someone complains of neck or back pain a pre-arranged extraction plan swings into action.

I've been told never to let any casualty in my vehicle if attending as a first responder for exactly this reason. Fortunately my employer pays for both my personal public liability insurance and that for the car as part of their community relations programme, but even then I'd be very unhappy to have my car sliced open - even by the local retained firefighters in the village who I know very well.

It would be interesting to know how much NHS and fire service budget is wasted on defending and paying out such claims.

As to who pays - I think that "unforeseen consequences" would come into play (or whatever the correct jargon is). The insurance company would pay out for the direct consequences of the incident, but not for the voluntary consequences of someone else. It's a shame that the lady will probably lose in in one way or another, but if that principle was not in place, where would liability end?
 
An interesting thread. It never would occur to me that if I was in that situation I would lose my car roof for giving shelter. I only thought the roof came off the car in dire emergencies, as in the person couldn't move or was trapped.

I'll know now...

Nick has a point, it would have been easier to drive on.
 
No need to drive on and ignore another human in need... In this case 1) the woman was a direct witness to the incident and had pulled off anyway, and 2) there was no need to offer shelter in her car as there was no danger with the other cars preventing them from being used. However, it's true that the average driver doesn't know the ins and outs of taking certain actions at am incident.

What we do is keep the people in their cars, or re-sit them (often sideways, with their legs out of the doors). This means that if they need extraction, it's their own car that gets chopped or, if sat as mentioned in the back seat, they can be moved onto a spinal board and taken out that way.

When I had the S211, I'd sit people in the boot, sheltered by the tailgate - again, easy access and easy to put onto a board if needed.

It's a shame that society has become so litigious that these extremes are now the norm. The lady seems very nice and came across well on the interview I saw tonight - so I hope it gets resolved for her. Not sure that the car was worth £2k though....

I'll finish with one example (slightly off-topic but shows what has to be dealt with at times) - I was called out one summer's evening last year to attend a 2 vehicle RTC where one had rear-ended the other. The driver of the front car - a 5-series - was complaining of neck pains which meant that, although there was little or no damage to either car at this stage, I had to call it in. 8 mins later and the tender arrives from the village (incident was only just down the lane from where I live). The lead guy tells the driver what's going to happen and they start prepping. It suddenly dawned on the guy that they were going to chop the roof and so he jumps out, waving his arms, telling them to stop. I tell him to get back in the car, and that as he has reported neck pains he should remain still until assessed by the paramedics en-route. He decides to drive off instead, saying that there is nothing wrong with his neck....

So that idiot costs a crew call-out for a tender and one for a paramedic unit, plus the police unit that came out to attend too (and visit the guy in the next village as well). If it wasn't for the guy realising that having the roof of his car off was not worth a whiplash claim, then you can imagine the total costs involved for a minor shunt that resulted in nothing more than a couple of scratches.
 
I too will be devastated. Hopefully she will get a better car, a convertible this time
 
When simple humanitarian actions we would all hope we might benefit from, should the unthinkable happen, incur possible monetary penalties for those doing them instinctively with the best motives, we should be questioning how that situation arises. The fact that such actions might well have avoided further substantial claims against the insurance companies involved--- paraplegia anyone, shock, exposure, pneumonia--- should be taken into account by said company. High time the car insurance industry was forced, by legislation if necessary, to put its house in order to protect its customers which in their turn are forced by legislation [ car insurance is compulsory and rightly so] to purchase one of their " products" This matter should have been settled between the 2 insurance companies involved and the woman compensated without penalty -for doing the right thing! Simples - as that annoying little African rodent might say.;)
 
you are always hearing about "where has the good in human kind gone" etc etc, but with incidents like this then you really can see why people dont help others and drive on.

i suspect the insurance company will not pay out, but i suspect she should be able to find some way to get some sort of compensation for this in this claim-ridden society we live in nowadays.

If she was fully comprehensive, then its uncontrolled damage by a 3rd party (fire service) to her car.... so seems simple enough to me - her insurance writes off car, claims outlay back from fire service insurance as they technically damaged her car ??????????
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom