Personal injury claim settled against Admiral for cyclist injured in road traffic collision

We have settled a claim for a male cyclist who was seriously injured after a collision in May 2022. The collision arose from a failure by the defendant’s insured driver to stop her vehicle at a junction.

The claimant had been cycling along a main road, travelling in his lane, when, without warning, the defendant’s insured driver failed to stop her car at a junction and exited onto the main road, directly into his path. He had no opportunity to avoid a collision and impacted the side of the vehicle, being thrown over the top of the car and landing on the road.

In the collision, the claimant sustained a brief loss of consciousness, four rib fractures, a fractured (and dislocated) shoulder, collapsed lungs, back fractures, and visible damage to multiple teeth. As a result of his shoulder injuries, he had to undergo surgery to reconstruct two ligaments in his left shoulder, followed by physiotherapy. He has required implants and veneers on the three affected teeth since the accident, as well as support in the form of physiotherapy and counselling. 

After our personal injury team was approached by the claimant, we presented allegations to the defendant. We successfully obtained admissions of liability a number of months later. 

With these admissions of liability, we proceeded to investigate the value of our client’s claim by obtaining evidence from both a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and a dental surgeon regarding his likely future condition and prognosis. Our client will, unfortunately, continue to need recurring dental work and dental replacements throughout his lifetime as a result of the damage to his teeth in the collision. An element of this process has therefore been determining what future dental treatment will be needed, and how much this will cost. 

Given the nature of our client’s ongoing condition, it took multiple reports from the consultant orthopaedic surgeon, over a period of time, to get to a point where the expert was able to give a certain opinion regarding his long-term prognosis. This was important as we needed to ensure that our client’s final future prognosis (as well as everything he had been through) was also taken into account in his settlement.

Bethan Horsfield-Marrs, associate in the personal injury team at Penningtons Manches Cooper, comments: “Unfortunately, being involved in a serious collision as a cyclist can have significant ramifications – as it did for our client. For some people, these ramifications can be life long and life limiting. Despite a difficult couple of years, our client has fortunately largely recovered, and this settlement has made provision for the recurrent dental treatment arising from his collision, which he will need for the remainder of his life. We are pleased to have been able to persevere to achieve this for our client.”

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