Car accident news
29/12/2011

Driver wins legal battle against £3.5m compensation claim

A driver has successfully won his legal battle which challenged a £3.5m car accident compensation claim.

The 23-year-old apprentice footballer had been allegedly racing with another car when the crash took place.

The other vehicle, driven by a young man with a female passenger, attempted to overtake the footballer at excess speed causing it to come off the A832. The two drivers have both denied that they were racing.

Both drivers appeared at Dingwall Sheriff Court in February 2007 where the amateur footballer was fined £750 and was banned for a year while the other driver was ordered to carry out 220 hours unpaid community work and was banned for 30 months.

The female passenger who was involved in the crash sustained life changing injures which have left her dependant on a wheelchair. As a result, she launched a £3.5m claim for car accident compensation against both drivers.

However, the footballer named in the car accident compensation claim, whose insurers faced paying 20% of any damages, has successfully challenged the claim after lodging an appeal at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. The judge ruled that because the other motorist had elected to overtake, the appealing driver could not be held jointly responsible for the car accident.