Passenger injured in car accident awarded £55,000 compensation

“I still have nightmares remembering my nine-year-old daughter screaming from the backseat but it could have been a lot worse.”

Mandy Kilroy, aged 33, was a front seat passenger heading to Dundee with her mother and nine-year old daughter when the car behind struck them.

“My mum was driving at the time and had to perform an emergency stop and we were sitting at a standstill when another car travelling about 40mph-50mph smacked into the back of us.

“My seatbelt hadn’t locked and I face planted the dashboard and broke my nose. I found one of my teeth on the floor and another was dug into the roof of my mouth.”

"It was horrendous, I didn’t leave the house for days"

Due to the nature of Mandy’s dental injuries, she struggled to eat or drink and the injuries to her shoulder and neck made it difficult to do everyday things around the house. As her nose had also collapsed in the accident, she struggled to breathe out the right nostril and lost her sense of smell and taste.

“It massively knocked on my confidence. My husband was desperate to get me out for my birthday which was two days after the accident but there was no way I was leaving the house.

“The mental trauma after the accident was perhaps one of the worst things. I’m still a nervous wreck getting into a car and I only started driving again about a year and a half after the accident.”

"Worried about finances as I was off work recovering"

Mandy was off work for a total of eight weeks because of her recovery, which meant she went from full time pay to only receiving statutory sick pay.

“This left us short quite a few times which was worrying. Even when I did go back, I found I couldn’t do any heavy lifting because of my shoulder and back injuries and I dreaded the drive to work as it was on a busy road.”

She ended up changing jobs so that she was able to travel by public transport to work.

Digby Brown made the recovery a lot easier

Mandy contacted Digby Brown’s office in Dundee and Sarah Douglas, Partner, pursued an injury claim on her behalf.

“Because of the type of injuries, I had to see specialists but Digby Brown pointed me in the right direction. I wouldn’t have known where to start or who was best but they made it all so easy. I knew everything was being dealt with which put me at ease and I didn’t have to worry about it.

“The service was fantastic, personally I could not fault Sarah or Digby Brown – she was really friendly and approachable and very professional – there was a personal touch and I felt really comfortable speaking with her.

“Everything went very smoothly and they explained all the legal jargon to me so I knew what was going on.”

Interim payment paid for private operation

Our Dundee solicitors arranged for an interim payment to allow Mandy to have a septoplasty procedure done privately. We also arranged private physiotherapy and psychotherapy for her.

“We had been on the NHS waiting list for over a year so being able to get my nose fixed privately made everything happen a lot faster and start the recovery sooner. It was great to get my sense of smell and taste back and this helped me get things back on track sooner.

“The physio really helped as well, they showed me different exercises and ways to do things to avoid the pain or deal with pain if it happened.

“They also arranged for counselling which really helped me deal with the emotional side.”

£55,000 compensation for injuries

Our Dundee office secured £55,000 in compensation for Mandy’s injuries, with a large part of this for future dental treatment that will be needed.

“After the accident, I was all over the place and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make a claim and live it all over again.

“Contacting Digby Brown and going ahead with a claim was the best choice we made.

“I was very happy with the outcome and the end result was more than expected. It compensated me for what I went through but at the same time I wouldn’t wish this on anyone and would rather it had never happened.