More and more insurance companies are refusing to accept that people can be injured even though the damage to the vehicle may cost less than €1,000 to repair. It is very important that injury victims understand what happens to a person in a crash. This understanding is essential in evaluating injury thresholds especially if the collision occurred at a lower speed and the vehicle damage was relatively minor.
Not surprisingly from my experience in many road traffic cases where there is little or no property damage the occupants in the vehicle can be severely injured. Extensive research has been conducted to explain this discrepancy.
As an experienced Personal Injury Solicitor for many years I have a solid grasp of the engineering concepts involved so when I receive instructions from client’s injured in road traffic accidents, I can win the argument with the insurance company that their injury claims are valid.
The things I argue with insurance companies to win the claims are the change in velocity, peak acceleration and the fact that impact speed is not a correct barometer of whether a person has been injured in a collision or not. This is despite insurance companies arguing everyday that they are. In fact, the only correct approach to determine whether the collision has caused the personal injury is to compare the locations of applied forces with the diagnosed injuries and types of injuries known to occur.
Test data has confirmed as follows: –
- There is no identified threshold for an injury to occur
- A vehicles change in velocity does not define the forces on the vehicle
- The vehicles change in velocity and the forces on the vehicle do not define the forces on the occupants inside the vehicle
- The forces on the occupant corelate to the injuries typical in a given collision
- The forces on the occupant do not match any other identified activity
Research has shown that if a vehicle is damaged in a bumper-to-bumper collision, the impact is at a level where the risk of injury to a human is significant.
If you have been injured in an accident and an insurance company is refusing to compensate you for your injuries by using a minimum impact type defence please contact our Mr Liam Moloney Solicitor at liammoloney@moloneysolicitors.ie and he will assist you with your case.
