If you were injured as a passenger in a car accident in Belfast, you may be entitled to make your own personal injury claim. It does not necessarily matter whether the accident was caused by another vehicle or by the driver of the car you were travelling in.
Passengers are in a different position from drivers. You were not steering the vehicle, deciding when to brake or choosing whether it was safe to pull out at a junction. In many road traffic accidents, the passenger has played no part at all in causing the collision.
Yet passengers are sometimes the people most unsure about what happens next.
That can be particularly true if you were travelling with your husband or wife, partner, friend, family member or work colleague. You might feel uncomfortable about making a claim if they caused the accident. You might also find that the driver is already dealing with an accident management company and has been referred to a particular solicitor.
Neither situation means that you should simply go with the flow.
Your injury is separate from the damage to the car, and as a passenger you are entitled to obtain your own legal advice and choose your own solicitor.
Why Is a Passenger Injury Claim Different?
A driver involved in an accident may face an argument about whether they were wholly or partly responsible for what happened.
A passenger will usually have had no involvement in the driving decisions that caused the collision.
Consider a fairly ordinary Belfast accident. You are sitting in the passenger seat while travelling through a junction. Your driver pulls out and another vehicle collides with your car.
The drivers may immediately disagree.
One says the other vehicle was travelling too quickly. The other says your driver should never have pulled out.
You, however, were simply sitting in the passenger seat.
If negligence by one or more drivers caused the collision and you were injured as a result, you may have your own claim regardless of the disagreement taking place between the drivers.
Northern Ireland has compulsory motor insurance requirements covering liability for death or bodily injury arising from the use of motor vehicles on the road. That is one reason why the insurance position is so important when a passenger is injured in a road traffic accident.
Can You Claim Compensation If You Were Injured as a Passenger?
Yes, potentially.
A passenger can bring a personal injury claim where another person’s negligence caused an accident and resulted in injury.
It does not matter simply because the person driving was your friend, partner, parent, sibling or colleague. Equally, you may have been travelling in a taxi, private-hire vehicle, work vehicle or bus.
The important questions are how the collision happened, who was legally responsible and whether the accident caused your injuries.
Passengers are often understandably more concerned about what has just happened than taking photographs of number plates and collecting policy information. Those details can usually be investigated afterwards.
What If the Driver of My Car Caused the Accident?
This is probably the most common question for many passengers speaking to our office for the first time.
You can still have a personal injury claim if the driver of the vehicle you were travelling in caused the accident.
Suppose you were travelling through Belfast with a friend. Your friend fails to stop in time and drives into the rear of another vehicle.
You suffer a neck injury as a result.
The fact that the negligent driver happens to be your friend does not mean that your injury suddenly stops.
The same principle applies where the driver is your partner, spouse, parent, other family member or colleague.
Strictly speaking, the legal claim may be brought against the person responsible for causing the accident. Where that person is properly insured, however, their motor insurer will ordinarily deal with the claim and provide the relevant indemnity.
For many passengers, understanding this removes much of the personal awkwardness.
You are not simply asking your friend or relative to take money out of their pocket and hand it to you. You are dealing with a road traffic accident and the insurance arrangements that exist for precisely these types of liabilities.
What If More Than One Driver Was Responsible?
Passenger claims can also arise where both drivers contributed to the accident.
Imagine two vehicles collide on a Belfast road. One driver may have pulled out when it was unsafe to do so, while the other may have been travelling too quickly.
Liability might ultimately be divided between them.
For the injured passenger, that does not necessarily prevent a claim.
Where the evidence indicates that more than one driver contributed to the collision, a solicitor can consider whether the claim should be pursued against more than one party.
You should therefore be cautious about being told:
“Nobody has admitted liability, so you can’t claim.”
An admission of liability at the roadside is not a prerequisite to investigating a passenger injury claim.
The evidence can be considered afterwards.
Can a Passenger Claim for Whiplash?
Yes.
Whiplash and other soft-tissue injuries can affect passengers just as they affect drivers.
When a vehicle is struck from behind, from the side or brought suddenly to a halt, the passenger’s head and neck can move rapidly. This can result in neck pain, stiffness, headaches, shoulder discomfort and restricted movement.
Passengers may sometimes be particularly unprepared for the collision.
You might have been speaking to the driver, looking through a side window or simply unaware that another vehicle was about to hit the car.
Symptoms do not necessarily have to appear immediately.
It is quite common after a road traffic accident for everyone to concentrate first on getting out of the vehicles, checking whether anyone is seriously hurt and exchanging information.
You may genuinely say at the scene that you feel fine.
Later that evening or over the following days, pain or stiffness may become more noticeable.
The sensible approach is to be accurate about what happened: how you felt immediately afterwards, when symptoms began and how they developed.
If you are experiencing symptoms following an accident, obtain appropriate medical advice.
What If I Wasn’t Wearing a Seatbelt?
Failure to wear a seatbelt does not automatically mean that a passenger cannot make a claim.
It can, however, become relevant to contributory negligence.
The issue is usually whether wearing the available seatbelt would have prevented the injury or reduced its severity.
If the evidence establishes that the failure to wear a seatbelt contributed to the injuries, compensation can potentially be reduced.
Northern Ireland courts have considered this issue in road traffic accident cases and have made deductions for contributory negligence where the medical and other evidence justified doing so.
That is very different from saying that there is automatically no claim at all.
My Driver Is Using an Accident Management Company. Do I Have to Use Their Solicitor?
No. You can choose your own solicitor.
This is increasingly relevant after road traffic accidents.
The driver of the vehicle may contact an accident management company to arrange repairs, recovery, storage or a replacement vehicle.
That company may have a relationship with a particular law firm and may refer the driver to that firm. You may then be asked whether you also want that solicitor to deal with your passenger injury claim.
You do not have to agree.
You are entitled to choose the solicitor you want to represent you.
You do not have to use a particular law firm simply because your driver is using them, the accident management company recommends them or paperwork has already been sent to you.
There can also be circumstances where obtaining separate advice is particularly sensible.
For example, if there is a possibility that the driver of the vehicle you were travelling in contributed to the accident, the driver’s legal position may not be identical to yours.
The important thing is that you are the client. The choice of solicitor is yours.
What If I Was a Passenger in a Taxi?
Passengers injured in taxis or private-hire vehicles can also potentially make a claim.
The same fundamental questions apply.
Who caused the accident? Was someone negligent? Did that negligence cause your injury?
Sometimes the taxi driver may have caused the collision. In other cases, another road user may be responsible.
You do not need to work out the answer yourself before speaking to a solicitor.
What Evidence Should an Injured Passenger Keep?
You do not need to conduct your own investigation, but preserving basic information can make matters considerably easier later.
Useful evidence can include:
- photographs of the vehicles, accident scene and any visible injuries;
- vehicle registration numbers and driver details;
- details of any witnesses;
- the police incident or reference number, if the police attended;
- dashcam or other video footage;
- GP, hospital and other medical records;
- wage information if you lose earnings;
- receipts for treatment, travel or other accident-related expenditure; and
- brief dated notes recording your symptoms and how the injury affected normal activities.
Do not worry if you did not obtain everything at the roadside.
Passengers are often not involved in the exchange of insurance details at all.
The driver may have the relevant information, and further evidence can be obtained during the investigation of the claim.
Why Should a Passenger Keep Their Own Notes?
After an accident, almost all of the correspondence may go to the driver.
The driver’s insurer contacts them.
The accident management company contacts them.
The repairer or engineer contacts them.
As the passenger, you may hear relatively little.
It is therefore worth keeping your own brief record of what happened.
Note where you were sitting, whether you saw the collision coming, what you remember about the impact and when your symptoms developed.
Also record the practical effect of the injury.
Perhaps you struggled to sleep because of neck pain. Maybe you missed work, required help at home, stopped going to the gym for a period or became uncomfortable travelling as a passenger.
You do not need to write pages every evening.
Short, honest notes made reasonably close to the event can preserve details that become surprisingly difficult to remember months later.
What Compensation Can a Passenger Claim?
The value of a passenger injury claim depends upon the individual injuries and losses involved.
Compensation for the injury itself is generally assessed by reference to the nature of the injury, its severity and how long the symptoms are expected to last.
In Northern Ireland, the Green Book – Guidelines for the Assessment of General Damages in Personal Injury Cases in Northern Ireland is an important reference used by courts and practitioners when assessing general damages.
A claim can also include appropriate financial losses resulting from the accident, such as loss of earnings or reasonable expenses, where these can be established.
A minor soft-tissue injury that resolves relatively quickly will therefore be approached very differently from a fracture, an injury requiring surgery or a condition producing permanent symptoms.
How Long Do I Have to Make a Passenger Injury Claim in Northern Ireland?
Personal injury claims in Northern Ireland are generally subject to a three-year limitation period, although the precise calculation of that period and the exceptions that can apply require care.
Different considerations can arise, for example, where the injured passenger was a child at the time of the accident or where questions arise concerning the date of knowledge.
Limitation should therefore never be left until the last moment.
If an accident happened some time ago, obtain advice rather than assuming either that you are safely within time or that it is definitely too late.
What If Someone Has Already Told Me I Don’t Have a Claim?
Have the actual circumstances considered before accepting that conclusion.
Passengers sometimes hear statements such as:
“Your friend was driving, so you can’t claim.”
“Your own driver caused it.”
“Neither insurer has admitted liability.”
“The car wasn’t badly damaged.”
“You said you were okay at the scene.”
“The accident management company has already appointed a solicitor.”
None of those statements, standing alone, decides whether you have a passenger injury claim.
A solicitor should look at how the accident happened, who may have been responsible, the insurance position, your medical evidence and the losses you sustained.
Being told “you can’t claim” is not the same as having the facts properly assessed.
Do Passenger Injury Claims Have to Go to Court?
Not necessarily.
Northern Ireland has a Pre-Action Protocol specifically dealing with personal injury and damage-only road traffic accident claims. Its purpose is to encourage the exchange of information and consideration of claims before proceedings become necessary.
Many road traffic accident claims can therefore be investigated and negotiated without a contested court hearing.
Whether proceedings are required depends upon matters such as liability, medical evidence, valuation and the approach adopted by the insurer.
Passenger Injury Solicitors in Belfast
Passengers can sometimes be overlooked after a car accident.
The driver’s attention is on the damaged vehicle. Insurance companies are exchanging information. An accident management company may be arranging repairs or replacement transport.
Meanwhile, you may simply be sitting at home wondering why your neck has started hurting.
If you were injured as a passenger in a road traffic accident in Belfast or elsewhere in Northern Ireland, you are entitled to obtain your own advice.
It does not matter simply because the driver was your partner, friend, relative or colleague. It does not matter that your driver has already chosen an accident management company or been referred to another solicitor.
Your injury is your claim, and your choice of solicitor is your decision.
At Lacey Solicitors, we act in road traffic accident and personal injury claims throughout Belfast and Northern Ireland. We can consider how the accident happened, identify the relevant parties and insurers, review the medical position and explain the practical steps involved.
You can also read more about our road traffic accident and whiplash services.
Every passenger injury claim depends upon its own facts. The starting point is simply to establish what happened and how the accident has affected you.
