Compensation for injury caused by a Boris bike rider

I recently settled a personal injury compensation claim for an elderly client who suffered serious injuries caused by a cyclist. My client was in the process of crossing a one way road, having looked to her left where the traffic was flowing from when the cyclist travelling in the wrong direction (her right) struck her, causing her to fall.

It was totally unexpected and understandably my poor client was extremely traumatised. She sustained significant injuries to her wrist and pelvis as a consequence of which she was admitted to hospital for 11 days. Due to her injuries, my client experienced considerable restrictions with activities of daily living which included caring for her husband who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. She was his main carer and required help and assistance, including with looking after her husband.

Usually it is difficult to bring personal injury claims against cyclists as it is not mandatory for them to take out third party insurance to ride a bike. Many people have no recourse to any compensation even if they are severely injured by a cyclist. There are however exceptions; in some cases the offending cyclist may have home or credit card insurance to meet such claims, but that is not very often. Fortunately for my client, the cyclist in question had been riding a bicycle which he had hired under the London Cycle Hire Scheme. The Scheme, popularly known as “Boris bikes” after the Mayor of London at the time of introduction, enables members of the public to a hire a bicycle for as little as £2, with the first 30 minutes being free. It includes public liability insurance cover to those that hire a bike and my client was able to bring a claim against the cyclist under this policy.

We were advised by the police that the cyclist was charged with cycling without due care, fined £615 and ordered to pay costs of £147 following proceedings at Bromley Magistrates Court.  This enabled us to get an admission of primary liability, but with an allegation of contributory negligence of 50%. The insurance company was holding my client 50% to blame for not looking to her right. Even if my client was somewhat to blame she certainly was not equally to blame! This allegation was unsurprisingly disputed by us.

My client made remarkable recovery and we eventually settled her claim for a six figure sum.

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