Compensation claim news
30/03/2010

Safety campaigners call for tougher driving laws

As well as making a compensation claim, parents of an 11-year-old boy hit by a car last year are joining safety campaigners in a call for stricter punishments on drivers who cause serious injuries.

The youngster was hit by a teenage driver when crossing Wigan Road in Westhoughton in September 2009. The driver was banned from driving for 18 months and fined £400.

The boy he hit, however, has been left with permanent learning difficulties from the injuries he sustained in the incident.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Acidents (RoSPA) has also called for tougher sentences on drivers who cause serious injuries.

Head of road safety Kevin Clinton said, "Though the driver in this case was only convicted of careless driving, there is an argument for changing the offences of causing death by careless or dangerous driving to causing death or serious injury."

He added that this would allow sentences to better reflect the harm caused when someone suffers a life-changing injury following a car accident.

Since the accident, Bolton Council has also promised to review the speed limits on Wigan Road, changing them from 40mph to 30mph just before the junction where the boy was hit.

According to local residents, the road is "another accident waiting to happen" and more compensation claims for injured pedestrians are likely to be made until the speed limit is decreased.