UK tourist attractions settling accident claims

28th April 2010

Some of the UK's most popular and prestigious tourist attractions are having to fork out big injury compensation to settle no win, no fee claims made by accident-prone tourists, according to a survey of 24 of the country's leading castles, museums and galleries.

One no win, no fee claim was made by a woman who suffered hip and pelvic injuries after falling into a moat while trespassing at Carlisle Castle; the claim was eventually settled for £15,000 plus £37,250 in legal costs.

In another claim, flagship tourist attraction, the Victoria and Albert Museum had to pay out nearly £24,000 in accident compensation to a woman who suffered damage to her hip as a result of a collision with a revolving door.

Shadow arts minister Ed Vaizey responded to news of the claims by saying that "it would be a terrible tragedy if the compensation culture forced [museums and attractions] to restrict visitor access.

"We would look urgently at a system that would protect them from spurious compensation claims by no-win no-fee lawyers," he added.

However, there is no indication that any of the no win, no fee claims that received settlement could be described as "spurious", although the claim made by the trespasser has understandably proved contentious.

For more information on an injury suffered in a public place call our office and speak to a solicitor today!

Employer fined after worker severed fingers

16th January 2010

A worker severed four fingers in a guillotine accident at work.

Centriforce Products has been ordered to pay almost £5,000 following a workplace accident in which a man lost four fingers.

The workplace accident, in May 2008, occurred when machine operator Wesley Dickinson and a colleague had been working on a plastic cutting machine. The plastic had become jammed and Dickinson, thinking that his colleague had turned off the automatic guillotine switch, tried to clear the blockage. As he did so the guillotine cutter came down on his hand, severing four fingers.

Dickinson was in hospital for three weeks with surgeons eventually managing to re-attach two of the fingers, but he will be unable to carry out any manual work in the foreseeable future.

Liverpool Magistrates Court fined Centriforce Products £2,500 with £2,438 in prosecution costs for breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations which state that an employer must stop employees having access to dangerous machine parts.

HSE inspector Martin Paren said: “The company should have had a guard on the guillotine to prevent workers from reaching the blade. An automatic mechanism should also have been in place so that the power was cut if the guard was opened. Instead Mr Dickinson wrongly assumed that a colleague had switched the guillotine off, and he had four fingers cut off as a result."