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So where do you stand if you are involved in a traffic collision in the UK? A tricky question, as there will be a number of factors which could affect the perspective of who was at fault, please notice that I have referred to it as a traffic collision, not an accident, this is simply because the term accident implies that nobody was at fault, even though this can be the case in rare situations, it’s very uncommon that neither party is at fault. We are also talking here about incidents which involve trucks, cars, vans motorbikes and pedestrians.

So let’s take an example of a fairly common situation, one vehicle is at the roundabout, it’s quite busy and edging forward ready to jump out when a suitable gap appears, then bang, somebody drives straight up the back of them.  The car in front says it’s the fault of the person behind as they had obviously pulled out before the care in front had gone, however the person behind says it’s the fault of the person in front of them, as they were watching right, a large gap came along and the person in front of them should have pulled out, this situation is almost always the fault of the car behind, as they have pulled away without looking to see if the vehicle in front of them had gone, they may be slow but it’s your responsibility to check first, it’s usually the person at the rear who is at fault if they bump the car ahead of them.

Whilst this kind of situation is quite common, most likely nobody was hurt due to the slow speed at which the vehicles are moving, however it can cause whiplash, this is an injury to the neck which was caused by rapid acceleration or deceleration causing the neck to be jarred.

If the driver or a passenger (usually the person who is hit from behind) has whiplash, they could need to visit hospital and be fitted with a supportive brace for their neck, without one the injury could become worse, in any situation like this it’s always best to be safe and stop by the local hospital just to be safe.

Please bear in mind I am not a solicitor and am not offering legal advice here, if you need legal advice after being involved in a car crash or any type of traffic related incident you should contact a specialist solicitor. It’s a good idea to try to find someone quite local so if you are in Wiltshire look for a Swindon solicitor or Cheltenham solicitor, if however you are in Oxon you are best with someone more local so try to find an Oxford solicitor. It’s handy if you can find someone local to you as then you can pop in to discuss the details of the claim. Personal injury solicitors will be able to advise about accidents at work or clinical negligence too as they will usually cover a wide range of cases. Often on a no win no fee basis too, so you have nothing to lose.