To drive as safely as you can, you need to be cool and confident under pressure. As my instructor always used to tell me – ‘always be scanning ahead’ which I found to be a very useful piece of advice, especially as I commute quite a distance to and from work every day.
I avoid accidents several times a month, all of which are never my fault! So I consider myself to be a good and confident driver (famous last words if I have a crash soon!) and I see time and time again that other drivers panicking is a recipe for disaster.
So what happens when you’re the victim of a panicked driver? Can you claim?
Generally speaking, if another drivers negligence has caused an accident and you have been injured as a result, you should be able to make a winning claim for personal injury compensation. Panic is no excuse, and its a common cause of accidents on Britain’s busy and bustling roads. Commons scenarios where panic causes accidents are:
- Drivers missing their turn off on a roundabout and cutting others up
- Sudden lane changes causing accidents when drivers see hazards (necessarily swerving for example)
- Slamming the brakes prematurely or where it was not necessary
- Confused drivers trying to navigate areas they don’t know, panicking, and suddenly turning off or changing lanes without properly looking out for danger
In one moment of panic, a driver may not be checking their mirrors or surroundings correctly, or at all. This is dangerous, and accidents caused by such panic do leave a driver negligent in the eyes of the law. As I said earlier, panic is no excuse.
If you have been injured because of a driver that wasn’t paying the proper due care and attention they should be doing, you are fully entitled to make a car accident compensation claim from their insurers. The process is usually very easy – we submit a Claim Notification Form to the insurer directly who has 15 working days to accept liability. We will send you to see a medical expert who will produce a report for us that we then sue to vale the claim. Once we have all your evidence and losses and expenses evidence (like lost earnings and treatment costs) collated, we look to negotiate offers to settle!
For help and advice, give us a call on 0800 634 75 75 and we can normally let you know in minutes if we think you have a good case.
