Road Traffic Accidents Ireland

If you have experienced an injury in a road traffic accident that wasn’t your fault, you’re within your rights to make a personal injury compensation claim. You are also entitled to be compensated for any emotional distress or psychological effects you may have experienced as a result of the injury or injuries you sustained in the accident.

Not many personal injury claims go to court, as all claims must first be submitted to the PIAB where they are usually resolved via a pre-trial settlement. This is a good thing, as it means you will be spared the emotional stress of a court day, while at the same time securing your compensation faster and at a lower cost.

If you wish to contest the compensation amount awarded to you by the PIAB you can pursue court proceedings afterwards, but again, it’s likely your case would be settled before it ended up in court.

With road traffic collisions being an unfortunate but frequent occurrence, it’s very useful to be well informed about what you should do in the event that you are ever involved in one yourself.

Aside from the obvious possibility of serious injury, the intensity and emotion levels involved with this type of traumatic event are very high. Nobody can be expected to handle themselves perfectly, but taking care of even a few of the following steps can save further damage from occurring, and leave you in a better place to recoup compensation down the line.

An accident in the middle of a road has the potential to cause further collisions, so the best strategy is to warn other drivers using your hazard lights. If you have a reflective advance-warning triangle (a small red triangle with a highly reflective surface that will pick up headlight beams) place it enough distance away from the accident scene to allow other road users to spot it.

In general, it’s advisable not to move the vehicle involved in the crash, especially if it was a serious one. If the accident was minor and the vehicle is in a dangerous position on the road, mark its position and then move it out of the way.

Driving a vehicle on Irish roads without motor insurance is prohibited. In the event of an accident, it falls on the responsible party’s insurance company to cover the costs of repairing any material damage to the other driver’s vehicle and covering medical care for their injuries.

If you’ve been involved in a crash on the road, you should let your own insurance company know so that they can record the accident on their system.

The severity of an injury sustained in a road traffic accident will depend on a number of things, including the weather conditions, vehicle model and road type. Generally though, the higher the speed of the vehicle at the time of impact, the higher the risk of serious injury, or in the worse case scenario, death.

One of the most common injuries sustained in road traffic accidents is whiplash, which occurs when a vehicle travelling at speed is forced to stop suddenly, either due to brakes being applied or impact. When this happens, the driver and passenger’s heads will jolt suddenly, and the tendons and ligaments in the neck will be stretched unnaturally.

The symptoms of whiplash can include neck pain, stiffness and headaches. While the injury is often thought of as only a short term one, pain and restricted movement in the neck can often linger and affect daily life. In fact, somewhere around a third of people who experience whiplash still report symptoms after three months, and in 2% of cases it becomes a permanent disability.

The worst possible outcome of a road traffic collision is a driver, passenger or pedestrian losing their life. Fortunately, fatal road collisions in Ireland have been trending downwards for years, and 2021 was the safest year since data was first collected in 1959.

However, if you look at fatal injuries claims across the board, the most common ones result from accidents on the road. These types of claims generally involve immediate family members or partners and are brought forward seeking damages to cover funeral expenses, loss of dependency and emotional distress.

A loss of dependency claim will depend on the income and outgoings of the deceased person at the time of their death, and take into account the family members who were dependent on them. Emotional distress compensation is capped at €35,000 in the case of fatal accident claims, and is payable only in a single sum, regardless of the number of dependent relatives.

If you’ve been involved in a road traffic collision and require expert advice or assistance, contact us today. Our team of solicitors have over 30 years of personal injury litigation experience and will do everything necessary to help you to claim rightful compensation for your present and future needs.