The Glasgow Personal Injury team represented a 53 year old gentleman in a compensation claim after he was seriously injured in an accident at work in Scotland. He worked as an open cast driller in an open cast mine. When he had drilled one site he was walking back to the rig when a colleague started to blast in an adjacent area. The man was out in the open when the blast happened and saw a hail of rocks and boulders coming towards him.
He was seriously injured, his physical injuries included chest injuries, a ruptured liver, fractured sternum and fractured ribs. He also suffered significant Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as he literally watched when all the debris was coming towards him and knew that he was going to be seriously hurt. As a result of the accident, the man’s life has been adversely affected and he suffered greatly in terms of his relationships and social life such was the severity of his PTSD.
The personal injury team in our Glasgow office brought a claim against his employers and the open cast site operators. Irwin Mitchell’s position claimed that a failure of both the employers and the site operators to communicate properly with each other and the site operators had failed to tell the client’s employers that the ground had been weakened.
Both the operators and employers refused to accept fault for the accident and it was necessary for a court action to raised. The basis of court action was failure to take proper precautions.
The case settled out of court settlement for six figure sum.
Elaine Russell, Partner for Personal Injury in Glasgow said “It is important that employees are kept safe by their employers and other agencies who exercise control of working environments. Our client suffered a terrifying experience whilst at work that left him with a significantly altered life. It was only appropriate that he was reasonably compensated for this. What is unfortunate is that it takes a court action to focus the minds of negligent parties.”
Find out more about making a personal injury claim in Scotland.
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