A routine commute turns into disaster
One evening in November, Matthew was riding his Yamaha MT07 in a westerly direction on the A720 City of Edinburgh bypass during rush hour. Traffic was heavy and as part of his commute home he left the bypass at the Calder junction with the intention of riding home via Ratho. As he left the bypass, traffic was queueing to the left side of the slip road in lane one. However, lane two was open and so Matthew took the decision to make progress in lane two with the intention of nipping back into lane one when he reached the lights.
Unfortunately, Matthew never got that far, as the driver of a Citroen C4 Cactus that had been in the lane one, pulled right across his path to enter lane 2 when Matthew was only a matter of metres away. He tried swerving but to no avail as there was simply not enough time. A collision occurred and Matthew was thrown over the bonnet of the car.
Gathering crucial evidence at the scene
Thankfully, Matthew was able to get to his feet and noticed that the driver was trying to restart his engine to move his vehicle.
Fortunately, he was unable to do so as his side airbag had deployed. Concerned that the driver might be trying to flee, Matthew quickly snapped a photograph of the car. He later took photographs showing damage to his motorcycle and the offside of the car at the scene.
In the days that followed, Matthew became aware of increasing pain around his neck, left leg and left hand. He contacted his GP for treatment and specifically advised that he had been thrown over the bonnet of a car. Matthew had to take time off work. His motorcycle was damaged as was his protective clothing and helmet.
Matthew was only insured third party and was left without any funds to replace his damaged motorcycle. He contacted Motorcycle Law Scotland for help and we agreed to take on his case. That same day, a claim was intimated directly to the Citroen driver’s insurer. A report was also instructed to assess the damage to Matthew’s motorcycle.
Insurers deny liability and Court proceedings begin
The driver’s insurer denied liability. Whilst admitting that their driver had changed lane, they explained that Matthew was to blame for the collision as he had attempted to overtake their driver when his car was already established in lane 2. They said Matthew had misjudged the gap, lost control and hit their policyholder’s vehicle.
Satisfied that Matthew’s version of events was more credible, we raised an action in Court.
Motorcycle Law Scotland fights back in Court
The case was heard over three days during which both Matthew and the Citroen driver gave evidence. During his testimony, Matthew came across as entirely credible and reliable. The Sheriff noted that it would be unusual for a motorcyclist who was at fault to immediately start gathering evidence at the scene. The Sheriff found in favour of Matthew and awarded full compensation for his injury, loss of income, damaged motorcycle and protective equipment.
This claim was not without risk to us with the outcome coming down to accepting one version of events over the other. However, we take our commitment to the motorcycle community seriously and are willing to back injured motorcyclists all the way including to Court where necessary.
Motorcycle Law Scotland are committed to guiding vulnerable road users through the claim process from start to finish. We are not willing to accept spurious allegations from insurance companies and their policyholders. We will always fight our client’s corner until we secure the compensation they deserve. Where there is a good claim in law, we will use all means at our disposal to get results for our clients like Matthew. We are extremely happy to have helped him bring his claim to a successful conclusion.
Our Award Winning Team
Brenda Mitchell
Senior Partner
Brenda has been a Personal Injury Lawyer for over 38 years and for the last 20 years has specialised representing injured motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians.
Jodi Gordon
Partner
Jodi is a Partner at RTA Law LLP with 14+ years’ experience in catastrophic injury claims for vulnerable road users including cyclists and motorcyclists.
Thomas Mitchell
Partner
Thomas represents clients who have been involved in road traffic incidents and he specialises in representing vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
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