The tragic story of Katie Piper is a horrific example of the cruelty and jealousy that one man went to in order to control his girlfriend. Katie Piper modeled for catalogs and also presented a number of short TV programmes, she was a young, beautiful woman who had dreams of working in the TV business.

Katie like many other young people in today’s society, enjoyed socialising on the social network Facebook, she received many emails every day from admirers. One of her admirers in particular, caught her attention, Daniel Lynch. Lynch was a Martial Arts enthusiast, aged 33, he emailed Katie regularly and Katie felt they had a lot in common; she too had been involved with some promotional work in martial arts. Lynch followed Katie’s career and decided to meet her at one of her promotional events in Reading.

Katie thought that Lynch seemed quite shy and nervous at first but sadly this all changed very quickly. At first Katie was flattered by how often Lynch contacted her, he emailed and called her all the time but soon it became quite obsessive, Katie began to feel quite stifled by all the contact and planned to end the relationship but didn’t say anything to Lynch.
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If you have an accident at work are you responsible or are your employer’s automatically responsible for failing to take “better care of you”?

This is difficult to answer with a definitive ‘yes’ or ‘no’… As every case has to be judged on its own merits and there are many aspects which can influence how successful your claim is likely to be.

The first point is to establish whether or not your employer owed you a duty of care in the circumstances. Did your accident happen in your workplace; this may be in an office or out on a site you are contracted to work on? Your van or truck may be your workplace for example? If this is the case and if you had an accident whilst in your workplace then it’s more than likely that your employer owed you a duty of care.
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Sources from the Telegraph have today confirmed the outcome of the Buncefield explosion on December 11^th 2005, labelled as the biggest European peacetime explosion. For those of you that are not familiar with this event – an explosion was caused after petrol vapour leaked from a tanker in the early hours of a Sunday morning back in 2005; an explosion that remarkably measured 2.4 on the Richter scale, and was heard over 125 miles away.

The five companies involved have each received fines equating to more than £9million; a figure that has been condemned by local MP’s and campaigners as too lenient given the scale of the disaster. The judge in the case at St Albans Crown Court, Judge Sir David Calvert-Smith, has stated ”Had the explosion happened during a working day, the loss of life may have been measured in tens or even hundreds”, according to the source. And it’s certainly a miracle – or perhaps sheer luck – that no one was seriously hurt given the scale of the explosion. In fact, the judge went on to say that the fact the incident occurred so early in the morning with no significant casualties “was little short of miraculous”. The environmental impact could reportedly remain for decades.
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Road accidents are common – they happen all the time. Normally, it’s a case of negligence – a driver not paying enough attention on the roads, and subsequently causing an unfortunate accident. But there are things drivers can do that puts themselves and other road users at risk; drink driving being the major one.

Drink driving is against the law for a very good reason – it’s a fact that alcohol impairs a person’s judgment and has a significant impact on the brain. This makes driving under the influence an obvious danger, yet people are still prepared to do it – and it does cause accidents.
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Motorcycle accident victims can end up in a seriously bad way – many, are sadly fatal. But those who do survive often do so with permanent and life altering injuries; I suppose the worst would be a coma if the victim does survive the injuries.

This story is truly remarkable, and a bit of a miracle as well. According to Sky news (source), a motorcycle accident victim “pleaded to live” just before his life support was about to be switched off by blinking and moving his eyes…

Forty-three year old Richard Rudd was left paralysed after falling in to an irreversible coma following a crash leaving him with serious life altering brain injuries. His family made the tough decision that the father of two would not want to continue living in his condition, and gave doctors permission to withdraw his treatment. But moments before the decision was to be followed through, Richard was caught on camera signalling his will to live whilst a television documentary was being filmed, covering patients with severe brain injuries.
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Summer is finally here and we are all enjoying the recent hot weather and hoping that this is going to last throughout July, August and beyond. With the 6 weeks school holidays fast approaching I’m sure many people will be looking at ways to entertain their children and one popular way in which to do this would be to hire a bouncy castle, particularly for summer birthday parties.

However due to the nature of bouncy castles there is always risk of injury and it is important that parents and guardians who are thinking of hiring these types of inflatables do properly think of the risks involved and be aware of the required level of care and supervision.
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Whenever you are seen by a medical practitioner, you should always make sure that the practitioner is aware of any drugs that you may be taking which could effect the treatment you are given. If this is not done, it could have devastating effects.

In one case reported in May 2010 by the Medical Protection Society, a 30-year old seemingly fit and healthy looking male was actually being treated with an immunosuppressive for his rheumatoid arthritis. Unrelated to this, he attended the A&E department of his local hospital with symptoms of an itchy rash and a general lack of energy.

The junior doctor who saw the patient recognised the rash as chicken pox and noted that he had not suffered with this common disease in his childhood. The doctor informed the patient of his diagnosis and advised him to stay at home and take paracetamol and use calamine lotion to reduce the itch. At no point did he check what prescription medications the patient may be taking.
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With the long, and seemingly never ending, recession, increased petrol prices and running costs for cars, and the greener view of our planet, it’s not surprising that there seem to be more bicycles on the roads. But bicycles are slow and hard to spot, and drivers can be impatient! So bicycle accidents do of course happen; and just with motorcycle accidents, the injuries the victims can sustain can be quite awful – and claims for compensation can be made.

But on occasions when I review the recent news in search of ideas for my next article, I find a story that can only be described as out of the ordinary. So here’s one – of an unusual cycle incident that could warrant a claim for compensation – but it’s certainly no accident we’re looking at here!
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Burns and scalding can be very nasty injuries often leading to permanent scarring. Many people who have suffered from either injury can often carry physiological injuries too, believing that in some way it was their fault that they sustained an injury but actually this is very often untrue.

People who work in an environment that uses hot substances are more likely to suffer from a burn or scald but your employer should provide suitable equipment to prevent this from happening such as protective clothing and gloves. Plus any equipment that the hot substance is kept in should aim to protect an employee as well.
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If you have had an accident in a taxi, you may be wondering what you can do. If you were the passenger in the vehicle it may seem unfair that you have experienced injury and loss because of someone else’s fault.

Sounds familiar to you? Then perhaps you should consider placing a claim for compensation. As a passenger in a taxi, it’s more than likely that you had no influence over the accident and therefore, in the eyes of the law, you are considered an innocent party. This in theory should mean that your claim for compensation is fairly straight forward as it won’t be difficult to prove it was someone else’s fault.

You should always try to record the circumstances of the accident as soon after the event as possible, so that everything is still fresh in your mind. Take details of any people who may have witnessed your accident,  obtain details of all parties  involved such as the vehicle registration, names, taxi driver number and company the taxi driver works for. All this information will be very useful in your claim for compensation.
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