Our solicitors for car accidents in Liverpool & Merseyside can advise on any incident on the road. Car accidents are regularly caused by dangerous driving, and this is why it is mandatory for motorists to hold insurance. Though the number of whiplash claims has declined considerably, it remains the most common type of injury sustained in road traffic accidents, and has long been recognised as a condition that can cause ongoing pain and loss of mobility. If a motorist is not insured, or leaves the scene of an accident and cannot be traced, it will still be possible to claim compensation from the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB), a body funded by insurance premiums to compensate road users injured in accidents caused by uninsured and untraced drivers.

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Our solicitors for motorbike accidents in Liverpool & Merseyside know that motorcyclists risk injury to a far greater extent than any other type of road user, mainly because of the small size and powerful nature of motorbikes, and the high level of exposure of motorcyclists relative to other drivers. Accidents are often the result of motorists failing to see motorbikes approaching, overtaking, or turning across them, especially on congested city roads and during periods of poor weather. Injured motorcyclists can claim compensation from a motorist(s) who is to blame for a road traffic accident, or from a highway authority responsible for the dangerous state of a road.

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Our solicitors for bicycle accidents in Liverpool & Merseyside know that cyclists are more than 10 times at risk of being involved in a road traffic accident than other road users, with bicycles offering little protection in the event of a collision. Many of these accidents are the result of dangerous driving on the part of motorists. Where this is the case, injured cyclists will be able to claim against the motorist’s insurance policy for the physical injuries sustained and their associated costs, including loss of earnings and the cost of medical treatment. It will also be possible to claim for the cost of repair or replacement of a bicycle, as well as any other damage to personal property.

Our solicitors for bus accidents in Liverpool & Merseyside can advise on any type of bus accident. Accidents on buses in cities can be caused by erratic driving, often because of the pressure on bus drivers to keep up with their schedules, or when they are not paying proper attention to the road. When a bus brakes sharply or is forced to swerve standing passengers may be thrown to the floor, against the back of seats, or into other people, resulting in injuries. Passengers may also be injured when buses pull away from bus stops too fast. Cuts, bruises, whiplash and broken bones are the most common injuries sustained by passengers in road traffic accidents involving buses.

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Our solicitors for pedestrian accidents in Liverpool & Merseyside can advise on any incident involving a pedestrian being injured in the street. Pedestrians can be injured when crossing roads and in particular at zebra crossings, when they cross without looking properly, or when a motorist fails to see them while approaching at speed. Responsibility for an accident of this kind will often be split between the motorist and pedestrian, but either party will still be able to claim compensation for their injuries. Local councils are legally responsible for maintaining roads in a safe state for pedestrians to walk on, as far as reasonably possible, and may be held liable for accidents resulting from the dangerous condition of a road.

Mr D was overtaking a line of stationary traffic on his motorcycle when a car pulled out to turn right down a side road without indicating, and he collided with it. Mr D was thrown over the handlebars of his motorcycle and the bonnet of the car, landing on the road surface. The driver of the car and other motorists came to his assistance and called an ambulance which took Mr D to the nearest hospital’s accident and emergency department, where an X-ray revealed that he had fractured the radius bone in one of his arms. Mr D was fortunate not to have been more seriously injured, and was discharged from hospital the following day with his arm in a plaster cast. His broken arm took 8 weeks to heal properly, causing him pain and discomfort for an extended period, as well as considerable difficulties at work. Mr D was offered a low sum in compensation by the motorist’s insurers, and consequently decided to seek legal advice on how a motorcyclist should reject an insurer's compensation offer.

Mr D got in touch with Bartletts Solicitors and asked; how much compensation can a motorcyclist expect for breaking an arm and earnings loss? After taking our solicitor’s advice, Mr D decided to engage our firm to make a compensation claim. In correspondence with the motor insurance company we acknowledged that Mr D had been driving excessively fast while filtering past the stationary line of traffic, and was hence partly to blame for the accident. The driver of the car had however pulled out abruptly (as was confirmed by several witnesses to the accident) without checking the road properly or indicating, despite the fact that the motorcycle was roughly 10 metres away from him, leaving Mr D no time to brake or take evasive action. After a few months of correspondence we were able to agree an 80:20 split on liability for the accident in Mr D’s favour with the motor insurance company, and subsequently negotiated a compensation settlement totalling £5,800 on our client’s behalf.

Recent statistics show that the number of people killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents across Merseyside stood at 541 people in 2017, a drop from the estimated 599 people who either lost their lives or were severely injured in the previous year. The Merseyside Road Safety Partnership’s Road Safety Strategy aims to reduce this number to fewer than 400 by 2020, and appears to be working some extent based on the latest figures. However, given the fact that over a ten-year period up to 2023 the number of people visiting, living and working in Liverpool city centre is expected to increase by 25%, there are clearly still challenges ahead in terms of dealing with congestion and reducing the incidence of serious accidents to the target level.

Measures being taken by local authorities to reduce the number of road traffic accidents in Liverpool and Merseyside include improved road design and speed management, as well as special steps to protect vulnerable road users including motorcyclists, cyclists, pedestrians and senior road users. Given that cars are involved in the overwhelming majority of accidents on the roads, the police and local government are keen to constantly reiterate the principal causes of such accidents, which are also the basis for injured road users to seek compensation for car accidents in Liverpool. These include paying special attention to the presence of vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, looking out for cyclists and motorcyclists and allowing them adequate time and space, and keeping within the designated speed limit at all times.

Many road traffic accident claims handled by our car accident solicitors in Liverpool city centre involve other factors including motorists using mobile phones while driving, drivers and passengers failing to wear seat belts, and people driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Over the last 40 years Bartletts Solicitors has successfully claimed compensation for 1,000's of road users injured due to reckless and negligent driving. Get in touch with our car crash solicitors in Liverpool today for free and reliable legal advice if you are a motorist, passenger, motorcyclist, cyclist or pedestrian who has been injured in an accident on the roads in Liverpool or other areas around Merseyside.