Cyclist injured abroad awarded compensation in Scotland

Iain, a 46-year-old cyclist from Scotland, was on the second day of his cycling holiday in Spain when he was involved in a road traffic accident.

“It all happened so quickly and I couldn’t do anything to avoid it. The driver knocked me off my bike and broke my wrist. I wasn’t able to cycle after that and it ruined the rest of my holiday.”

When he returned home, he had problems sleeping and suffered from flashbacks and nightmares from the accident. He was unable to drive for 6 weeks. This meant his wife had to drive him to and from his work in Glasgow, over 100 miles a day. When he was able to get back on the bike, he suffered from anxiety and was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

“After the accident, the driver acted like she couldn’t care less about what had happened and wasn’t apologetic at all. She tried to drive off but the police stopped her. I decided to get in touch with Digby Brown Solicitors when I got home to see if they could help.”

Specialist lawyers in accidents abroad

Our expert lawyers in the Foreign & Travel department acted on behalf of Iain.

“There are obviously differences in Spain than here but Digby Brown explained it all to me and were on the ball with everything. They had international law connections which helped me win my case.”

No vehicle registration for driver at fault

The first step to pursuing this case was to trace the driver responsible for the road accident. Iain had been unable to get a note of the registration number of the Spanish driver but we instructed a Spanish lawyer to recover a copy of the police report in Spain. From here, it was possible to identify which Spanish car insurer that the claim should be made against.

Spanish police claim cyclist at fault

Another issue with this case was that the Spanish police report didn’t accurately describe the circumstances of the accident. The report said that Iain was at fault for the road accident and his injuries. Fortunately, Iain was cycling with a friend at the time who was able to provide a statement to corroborate Iain’s version of the accident.

After the insurer accepted the police report was inaccurate, they admitted liability for the accident.

Our specialist lawyers commented that: “Our experience of handling road traffic accidents in Spain has highlighted that Spanish police reports do not necessarily reflect the true circumstances of the accident. This is often the case because interpreters are not there to assist at the scene of the accident and therefore the language barrier can result in the facts being misunderstood. This is particularly common in accidents involving a Spanish motor vehicle and a pedestrian or cyclist.”

Successful collaboration with Spanish lawyers to get result

Our lawyers raised Iain’s injury claim using no win no fee funding to force the insurer to settle the case. They made a compensation offer in the amount of £20,000 and this was happily accepted by Iain.

“The process went really well. Digby Brown kept me up to speed with everything going on, pushed as much as they could and I was quite impressed. The service was ten out of ten – they couldn’t have done any more for me.

“I was over the moon with the compensation – it was a lot more than I was expecting to get."

Digby Brown has established partner firms in all major foreign holiday destinations and can collaborate with them, even following Brexit, to recover full compensation in the country where the accident occurred.

Mark Gibson, Partner and Head of the Foreign & Travel department, is the General Board Member for Scotland of the Pan European Organisation of Personal Injury Lawyers and is a former Governor of the American Association for Justice.

Iain said: “For me, having a specialist lawyer was invaluable. This is not something I deal with or know much about so I needed experts on my side.”

If you'd like to learn more about how our specialist team could help with your accident abroad claim you can call us on 0333 200 5925 or fill in our brief enquiry form.