We deal with car accident compensation claims day in and day out, and we have seen our fair share of serious accidents and significant multi-car pile ups. But reading the story of the 100 car pileup in Sheppey, Kent, that happened last week was something else.
According to news sources from the BBC more than 60 people were injured, 8 of them seriously, as over 130 vehicles ended up in a huge collision when thick fog reduced visibility to dangerous levels. There were reports that more than 200 people were treated for minor injuries as well, and the collision reportedly went on for more than 10 minutes.
The report confirms that visibility was down to 10 to 20 yards and cars were left mangled under lorries and people were lying on the ground all across the site of the collision on the A249. Vehicle after vehicle failed to stop in time on the 70mph road due to the poor visibility, resulting in cars and lorries literally just piling in to the back of each other. Some vehicles that managed to stop were hit from behind with such force that they were pushed in to vehicles in front in a concertina style collision.
Thankfully no one was killed. I imagine most of the victims will be going through insurance claims to recover vehicle damages, and may well wish to do the same for injuries as well. In high impact collisions, whiplash can be very painful and last for a considerable length of time. In most concertina scenarios you will claim from the vehicle that hit you from behind, but if you hit someone in front of you first you may still have a partial claim if you were hit from behind in a second collision.
Investigations have yet to conclude the cause of the incident, but I expect the fog played a huge part. All it would have taken is for traffic to slow down suddenly and vehicles travelling without lights on and travelling too fast for the conditions had no chance of stopping in time.
It could have been so much worse; thankfully it wasn’t.
