Lawford Kidd's Blog

The subject of whiplash claims has returned once again to the spotlight with the publication of a report by the House of Commons Transport Select Committee, which looked into the impact of whiplash claims on the cost of motor insurance premiums.

The report recommends that Ministers should consider reducing the limitation period for road accident insurance claims, and require whiplash claimants to produce more supporting evidence. However, the report also stresses that genuine claimants should not be demonised.

Accreditation scheme

Looking in more detail at the report, the Committee states that it supports the proposal for an accreditation scheme for medical practitioners who provide medical reports in relation to whiplash claims.

New evidence about whiplash claims has been launched in Parliament. Based on independent research, The Whiplash Report 2012 dispels common myths about whiplash claims with the aim of clearing the way for sensible debate about the issue.

“The people who suffer these injuries are genuine,” APIL president Karl Tonks told MPs and peers at a House of Commons reception. “Honest claimants are not the problem – the problem is fraud, and fraud must be tackled by all sides working together if we are going to eliminate it.”

Among the research findings is the fact that 80% of whiplash sufferers either report their symptoms accurately or underplay them, and 90% of people seek a medical diagnosis.

Reported road accident and casualty statistics have been released by Transport Scotland’s Statistician.

The statistics show that there were:

• 186 deaths on Scotland's roads in 2011 - 11% fewer than in 2010 (208), 47% fewer than 2001 (348) and the lowest figure since records began;
• 1,875 reported seriously injured in 2011 - 5% fewer than in 2010 (1,968), 45% fewer than 2001 (3,410) and the lowest number since records began;
• 12,770 reported casualties in total in 2011 - 4% fewer than in 2010 (13,338) and a 36% reduction on 2001 (19,911);
• 1,315 child casualties, 5% fewer than in 2010 (1,378) and 55% fewer than 2001 (2,923); and
• seven child fatalities in 2011, three more than 2010 and an average of five over the last three years.

With regards to road accidents, there were:

Lawyers have called for “sanity” in the national whiplash debate after claims dropped by 24,000 in the last year.

An independent survey, commissioned by the not-for-profit Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) also found that almost 40% of people who have suffered a whiplash injury have never claimed compensation for it.

The new information “injects some sanity into a national debate characterised by overblown and inaccurate rhetoric,” said APIL president Karl Tonks.

Three companies were ordered to pay a total of £232,000 in fines and costs after two workers on an Exeter building site suffered severe injuries when the platform they were working on collapsed and fell four storeys down a lift shaft.

One of the companies had been served with a prohibition notice by the HSE following an inspection at the site, which banned them from working until safety measures had been put in place to stop workers falling down the lift shaft.

A wooden platform was then erected over the shaft but two weeks later this collapsed, sending Ricki Slocombe and Matthew Blackmore falling to the ground floor.