What Can You Claim For Accident, Injury or Death At a Concert, Stadium or Plane Crash?

 Compensation Claims

Whenever I read of an event, a disaster, I wonder if the victims or families are all entitled to refund of their concert or football tickets or the air fare in a plane crash. If you have travel insurance, this might exclude hooliganism and terrorism - as I noted when we were in Prague one New Year's Even and our hotel warned us to get our car into a covered and gated car park and off the street, away from drunks, hooligans and falling fireworks. 

After the loss of life in Russia at the Crocus Stadium, I went online to read about compensation claims.

Online Lists of Compansation

I found a website from lawyers who represent accident victims, such as falls in stadiums. THeir list of compensation amounts was interesting. For example, if you injure different parts of your body, different aounts. 

Car Accident Injuries

In the past I have had car injuries. Apart from whether the vehicle drivers ere responsible, the claims are usually dealth with by competing insurance companies. 

Closing A Glaim

What are the factors affecting the claim? Why does it matter.? Can you just move on?. You are often asked to accept a certain sum of money but must sign an agreement that you will not make any later claim. 

Recurring Aches

All very well, but you can find the pain comes back later. 

WW2

Wartime Claims

I was amazed and appalled to find that my father in law could claim for hearing loss, which was in part due to injuries in world war 2, affecting his hearing many years later in old age. 

Reminder Aches

Minor aches and pain are one thing. ut a real reminder.

Car Accident Reminders - Pedestrians

I feel an itch in my leg and rub it. Then I recall that was where I was hit by the car bumper when I was knocked down by a car in Corsica back in 1984.

Stepping On Nails

 I feel a niggle under my foot. I remember I trop on a nail (left by carpet replacment of the flat above ours - sending me into hospital I had just come out of with my new baby, I ws wearing platform slippers). That was 1979. 

Paving Stone Injuries

But that was just minor niggles. I may feel that I am recovering from a fall over a raised paving stone in Brixton, London, this year. But what if the pain recurs, and I am unable to work, or keep waing at night as I turn onto the damaged part, or lose a tooth because I can't brush y teeth because of the numb gum.

Compensation Lists

In addition to claims for pain, the claimant might have claims for loss of earnings. If you cannot work. Or your empolyer takes away your job because of your short or long absence.

Useful Websites

https://www.legalexpert.co.uk/peronsal-injury-compensation/guide-football-stadium-accident-claims/

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook or LinkedIn or inreal life and have any information  please send it to me. 

Please bookmark and share links to this post with anybody who you think might be interested

The Laws Are Different - Check Them

Problem
I was reading about accusations, apologies, pleading guilty and court cases in America.

In one case somebody says, 'All I want is an apology'. Another case: 'He never admitted his guilt.' 'He denied it!' One comment says, 'How can they deny it! The evidence is there for all to see!'

I read the comments and another reader has said:
The lawyer of the accused tells them to plead guilty so that they can plea bargain later and admit guilt in exchange for something else, a lighter sentence or dropping another charge.

I discussed this with somebody in the UK. They said, "In the UK the laws are different. A defendant will be advised by the lawyers to plead guilty, if they are guilty, and likely to be found guilty, because the penalties rise as you obstruct the court or cost money by making a longer trial to establish guilt.

In cases where a defendant claims to have been tortured, another case occurs. They might plead guilty to end the torture, then retract the confession in court. So things are not as straightforward as they seem at first glance.

In the UK laws can be established by precedent. A lawyer defending you might say, before or after a court case, that a previous trial the defendant was found not guilty in a certain set of circumstances. Therefore the lawyer, if you plead not guilty, will bring up the previous case to try to persuade the judge that it is a waste of time and public money persisting because the jury will follow the findings of the previous case. The defense lawyer will argue persuasively that the case cannot be proven.

The moral is, whether you are in a court or simply reading a newspaper article about a court case, check the laws at the place and time of the court case.

You might also recall the old saying, "Never explain, never apologise." (Was it Oscar Wilde who said that? Or a newspaper proprietor? One accused person said, 'Publish and be damned.')

Car Accident Claims
My instructions from my insurance company in the case of a car accident in the UK were that in the case of an accident you must never hastily apologise or admit guilt at the scene of the accident. You must simply give your name and address and insurance company details and let them establish guilt. The two insurance companies will argue it out between them.

All sorts of things can affect whether or not you are guilty. For examply, one person said after an accident, said 'It was our driver's fault. He was going too slowly in the slow lane.' Hwever, the truck driver collecting the damaged car said, the evidence is the car was hit from the back, so it's automatically the fult of the driver which hit the car in front.

That could compromise your insurance company. You need to check before you speak or judge.

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Road Accidents in Romania and the UK

We had been talking about the dangers of accidents in the Romanian being greater than the dangers of accidents in the UK. Then this happened, Jun 23 in the UK.

Car accident UK. Car upside down in tunnel, on route from S t a n s t e d airport to London, on M25. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I have seen four major accidents in the last fortnight. (A fortnight is fourteen days. Americans and Singaporeans would say two weeks. The British shorten this to a single word, fortnight, short for fourteen nights.) More stories about the accidents and pictures at the end. Read on.

Problem
Are the roads safe? Should I take extra care? What extra care should I take?

Answers
You get four kinds of warnings about the likelihood of accidents and need to take extra care. First you see the signs. Depending on the driver's personality and car, the driver might slow down or think, that's for others. Then you see accidents on the motorway. Passengers tend to worry more. Finally drivers start taking more care, or leaving extra time for journeys. In addition to taking care to avoid having an accident, you need extra time to be able to visit sights en route and to reach an airpot in time for your flight.

What you need to do:
Recognize warning signs.
Know local conditions and dangers.
Allow extra time.

 Warning Signs
In the UK accident blackspot. In Europe symbols such as children running near a school, old people with sticks, slippery surface, hairpin bend in road.

After an accident you might get told, as in the UK:
1 Accident warning flashing and symbol of upside down car
2 slow speed to 50 or 40 m.p.h. (miles per hour),
3 L a n e  closure,
4 Junction closure,
5 Diverge lanes arrows - so you need to slow or stop to change lanes,
6 Police car might block a lane
7 Policeman standing or waving or holding hand might stop your car to allow large recovery vehicle to reverse to remove vehicles to road.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to posts.

Car accidents

Planning
Before taking a long car journey here are the precautions I take:
1 Check oil and tyres. (Or get the garage to do so for you.)
2 Fill the car with petrol.
3 Check all suitcases will fill in the boot of the car (what the Americans call the  t r u n k of the car; they also refer to the bonnet as the hood).

Decide if you will have a show nothing policy. One of my friends gave me a lift from London to a writers' holiday. She insisted that we had nothing on display on the car. Not a coat or cap, not a map nor a cup. Not a bottle of water. Not a coin or a pair of sunglasses. She wanted a completely empty car so that any potential thief would look at it and think, nothing there. Not worthwhile breaking in.

If we needed anything from the boot of the car for a food and toilet stop, we did not open the car boot in the car park of the motorway station before leaving the car. We took out any food or camera or valuable and put it in our handbag or tote bag and took it with us.

After leaving the motorway station we drove a short distance before stopping to put any camera or laptop or jewellery or other valuables back in the suitcase at the back of the car in the boot.

At a motorway stop we never left the car unattended. If one of us got out to pay for petrol, or to go to the toilet, the other person stayed in the car with the doors locked. We took sandwiches and did not stop on the journey.

Accident
On my way to Wales one year my car was hit by another and propelled into the fast lane where it hit the barrier, scattered bits over the motorway and spun around and stopped. The car which hit me was stationary in the slow lane behind me.

When my car was towed away to a garage, I had to continue my journey with only what I could carry in my wheeled suitcase. All the other paraphernalia, the car blanket, maps (which were recovered later) had to be left behind.

As a result I am now much more aware that any clutter in the car could be lost or left behind on the way.

Vital Numbers
I also put not my mobile phone the emergency numbers of my car insurers (the house contents insurers if my valuables are covered by my house contents policy instead), as well as the destination address and phone number and postcode, and the phone numbers of the organisers of a conference or event.

Friends of mine have told me about their accidents and how it affected them.

Car Fire
One friend, A, smelled burning and felt heat under her feet. She pulled into the hard shoulder. The car started filling with smoke so she told the three children to get out. Her bag was by her feet with her phone in it.

Her children were not wearing shoes. One child left behind his teddy and demanded she stop to pick it up. (That was a risk!)

She called the rescue services. They would only take her to the nearest motorway station because her insurance did not cover an engine fire. (Compare policies.) She was able to phone relatives two hours away to collect the family after a long wait.

Tyre Blow-out
Other friends had an accident in which a front tyre blew out and the car veered across the motorway lanes and hit another car in the opposite direction two other cars were write-offs as well as their own. Fortunately when he was breathalysed the driver had not had anything to drink. Also the car tyres had recently been changed.

In addition, when the police came to their house later and interviewed the husband and wife separately, she was able to say when he had had his eyes tested recently, (because she was careful to keep records because of glaucoma in her husband's family).

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.