Compensation win after taxi incident – Tilly Bailey & Irvine

A car may drive into the rear of the car in front, pull out from a junction into a passing car, or use the wrong lane on a roundabout and cause a collision. These are examples of the usual situations which arise.

But did you know that accidents also happen when a person isn’t even fully in the vehicle yet? This is exactly what happened to a client of ours.

Our client was getting into a taxi with two of her friends. Her two friends got safely in the taxi and were seated. Our client put her bags onto the back seat and proceeded to get into the taxi, with the intention of sitting on the seat behind the driver. She had one foot in the taxi and one foot still firmly on the ground. At this point the taxi driver proceeded to drive away. Our client was thrown onto the floor and the taxi ran over her foot.

She was of course shocked, shaken and unfortunately injured.

To add fuel to the fire, once our client’s friends got out of the taxi to check on her, the taxi driver fled the scene. Fortunately, our client had the vehicle registration number of the taxi as the taxi company had sent her a booking confirmation via SMS containing the details. Our client rightly reported the matter to the police and contacted Tilly Bailey & Irvine straight away.

The taxi driver had also reported the matter to the police, only his version of events largely differed from the truth. The driver reported that his passenger had fallen over a kerb outside his taxi. Fortunately, we obtained CCTV footage from a local restaurant which clearly showed that the accident happened as alleged by our client. It also showed that our client was some distance away from the nearest kerb.

Having considered the footage, the Defendants admitted liability for the accident.

Our client sustained a soft tissue injury to her foot, which took two weeks to resolve. She also suffered an aggravation to a pre-existing lower back and hip problem, with the aggravation expected to last between 10 and 12 months from the date of the accident. Our client also suffered from nervousness when travelling in taxis.

We successfully recovered £3,400 in compensation for our client and arranged for the defendants to provide her with physiotherapy.

If you require legal support, contact our specialist team of Teesside solicitors at Tilly Bailey & Irvine Law Firm on 01429 350062.

We have offices in Hartlepool, Stockton-on-Tees, Wynyard and Barnard Castle.