Lawford Kidd's Blog

A 20-year-old rugby player has been killed in a fatal road traffic accident following a collision with another vehicle.

Harlequins rugby union player Seb Adeniran-Olule had represented England at under-20 level and was beginning to make inroads into the senior Harlequins squad this season having made three appearances for the club.

In a statement released by the club, Harlequins stated that they were “deeply saddened” by the news, with director of rugby Conor O’Shea added: "Our thoughts and prayers are with Seb's family and friends at this difficult time.

New 20mph zones have been introduced in Glasgow as the city follows Edinburgh’s lead in attempting to reduce the number of road traffic accidents and injuries to vulnerable road users.

Edinburgh announced that a speed limit would be put in place in some areas of the city centre in March 2015 and Glasgow has now introduced a similar speed policy in a number of “high-risk” areas.

The Glasgow 20mph area covers a number of danger areas for vulnerable road users covering much of the South bank of the Clyde. While the new speed limit will not be enforced by speed cameras, police will be monitoring the areas to make sure that the new limits are adhered to, with new warnings also in place for drivers. The decision to implement a new speed limit was approved following a six-week public consultation, with 69% of the respondents being in favour of introducing a significantly reduced speed limit.

The Law Society has criticised the government following their proposal to raise the small claims limit for personal injury claims to £5,000 and stop compensation payments for road traffic accidents and other such injuries.

The society has been critical of the changes as it believes that the system will result in unfair legal action as those who are entitled to and need compensation will be unable to obtain it.

Change to Small Claims Limit

The changes, which were announced in the Autumn Statement, saw Chancellor George Osborne raise the small claims limit and scrap damages for ‘minor’ soft tissue injuries. The government proposals would also see the removal of legal costs by transferring personal injury claims of up to £5,000 to the small claims court.

Insurers have recently revealed that drivers of luxury cars cause more road traffic accidents than their less flashy counterparts. The Smart car, meanwhile, has lived up to its name by causing statistically the fewest accidents of all drivers. But no matter what type of car you drive, whether it’s a Micra or a Rolls-Royce, if you’re injured in a road traffic accident that wasn’t you fault, you’re entitled to compensation for the loss you’ve suffered as a result.

In this blog post, we take a look at why luxury car drivers may cause more accidents and how to make a road traffic accident claim should you be injured in an accident.

Luxury Cars and Road Traffic Accidents, UK

The data produced by MoneySuperMarket analysed over 11.3 million car insurance quotes run on the site between July 2014 and June 2015. The result showed that Lexus owners were responsible for 111 accident fault claims per 1000 drivers, compared to Smart car drivers, at the top of the table, who reported fault in only 78.6 accidents.

A new study has revealed that luxury vehicles are more likely to be involved in road traffic accidents than Smart cars and other similar models.

According to the latest data, Smart cars have the lowest "at fault" insurance claim rate out of any model. Between July 2014 and June 2015, vehicles such as the Smart car only registered 78.6 at fault claims per 1,000 drivers. This is in stark contrast to drivers of high-end cars such as Lexus, who had a 111 fault claims per 1,000 road users.

Other high-end luxury brands such as Land Rover and Audi were some of the worst performing in the study, with 110.1 and 105.2 at fault claims per 1,000 drivers respectively. The survey, from Moneysupermarket, analysed over 11.3 million car insurance quotes from the last year and shed some light into the driving habits of drivers.