Personal Protective Equipment and Work Accidents

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is necessary to protect you in particular against health and safety risks to vulnerable areas of your persons i.e. your head, face, eyes, skin, hands etc.

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 impose a fairly strict regime for both Employer’s and Employee’s to follow and these are intended to work together to provide you the employee with the most effective protection.
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Can I Still Bring a Fatal Accident Claim After 3 years?

The limitation period in terms of claims involving fatal accidents is normally 3 years from the date of death. After this point the claim will normally be statute-barred, meaning that the claim can no longer be brought. The purpose of this is to protect individuals from being subjected to claims a considerable time after they might reasonably have expected to have to defend the claim.

However, there may be circumstances in which a claim can be brought outside of that limitation period. A good example would be if the person bringing the compensation claim was a minor at the date when the accident happened. The 3 year limitation period will not start to run in this case until the claiming party reaches the age of 18. This helps to protect children from any exploitation which they might be vulnerable to had they brought a claim at an earlier age, provided of course that they were a dependent of the deceased.
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Contributory Negligence – Technicalities

Contributory negligence is when the other party (the ‘Defendant’ in law speak) admits that they are at fault for your accident and will pay you compensation but want to pay you less as they feel you are partly at fault for the accident. For example, if they successfully allege that you are 20% at fault for the accident then the other party will pay you 20% less than the value of your claim.
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Failure to Obey Road Signs and Accident Claims

If a driver ignores a road sign, they do so at their own risk. In the case of Buffel V Cardox ltd, a cyclist crossing the main road was injured by a lorry travelling up that main road.

About 95 yards from the crossing there were signs and studs in the road warning drivers on the main road to ‘slow’ and there were also a cross roads sign and a flashing beacon to warn drivers of the dangers ahead but the lorry driver on the main road decided to ignored the road signs failing to slow down and carried on driving at a high speed, which the Court found to be a dangerous speed for the road conditions.
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Trips and Slips: Is the Surface Suitable for Purpose?

Trips and slips are common place in the workplace. Unfortunately, this means that injuries are a regular occurrence.Employers are under a duty under regulation 12 of the Workplace, Health and Safety regulations 1992 to make sure as follows:
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