Pedestrians who are injured whilst crossing the road often assume they cannot win compensation if they were partly to blame for their own misfortune. However, a case in which a woman won six-figure damages despite failing to take proper care for her own safety shows how mistaken that assumption is.
The woman had been on a day out with her husband and two children and had her young son in her arms when she was run down by a van. The boy was happily unscathed, but the woman suffered serious injuries to one of her ankles. She sought compensation from the van driver’s insurers.
The accident happened as the woman set off briskly across four busy lanes at a set of traffic lights in an attempt to catch up with her husband and daughter. Her view was obscured by a large lorry and, when she stepped off the pavement, the lights had changed to amber. Neither she nor the van driver saw each other before the collision, which happened in an instant.
In ruling on the matter, the High Court found on the basis of CCTV footage that the woman had been negligent in failing to keep a proper lookout and in stepping onto the carriageway when the ‘little green man’ was flashing against her. The van driver, however, bore 80 per cent of the blame for the accident in going through the lights at amber and in failing to slow down when his vision was obscured. On that basis, the woman was awarded £120,000 in damages.
