Lawford Kidd's Blog

New 20mph zones have been introduced in Glasgow as the city follows Edinburgh’s lead in attempting to reduce the number of road traffic accidents and injuries to vulnerable road users.

Edinburgh announced that a speed limit would be put in place in some areas of the city centre in March 2015 and Glasgow has now introduced a similar speed policy in a number of “high-risk” areas.

The Glasgow 20mph area covers a number of danger areas for vulnerable road users covering much of the South bank of the Clyde. While the new speed limit will not be enforced by speed cameras, police will be monitoring the areas to make sure that the new limits are adhered to, with new warnings also in place for drivers. The decision to implement a new speed limit was approved following a six-week public consultation, with 69% of the respondents being in favour of introducing a significantly reduced speed limit.

A cyclist who was forced to quit his job due to life changing injuries has been awarded £100,000 in compensation in an out of court settlement.

48-year-old Heath Marshall was left with a serious skull fracture and leg injuries following a crash involving a motorbike. He also suffered post-traumatic stress disorder as well as experiencing flashbacks of the incident. Due to the extent of the injuries, the cyclist was forced to quit his job which left him unable to save for a property which he was looking to move into with his partner and children.

As well as shattering his knee and finding it hard to concentrate on matters as a result of his head injury, the 48-year-old also had to cancel his wedding due to the injuries sustained and struggled to continue cycling, a hobby he loved.

The Law Society has criticised the government following their proposal to raise the small claims limit for personal injury claims to £5,000 and stop compensation payments for road traffic accidents and other such injuries.

The society has been critical of the changes as it believes that the system will result in unfair legal action as those who are entitled to and need compensation will be unable to obtain it.

Change to Small Claims Limit

The changes, which were announced in the Autumn Statement, saw Chancellor George Osborne raise the small claims limit and scrap damages for ‘minor’ soft tissue injuries. The government proposals would also see the removal of legal costs by transferring personal injury claims of up to £5,000 to the small claims court.

A new study has revealed that luxury vehicles are more likely to be involved in road traffic accidents than Smart cars and other similar models.

According to the latest data, Smart cars have the lowest "at fault" insurance claim rate out of any model. Between July 2014 and June 2015, vehicles such as the Smart car only registered 78.6 at fault claims per 1,000 drivers. This is in stark contrast to drivers of high-end cars such as Lexus, who had a 111 fault claims per 1,000 road users.

Other high-end luxury brands such as Land Rover and Audi were some of the worst performing in the study, with 110.1 and 105.2 at fault claims per 1,000 drivers respectively. The survey, from Moneysupermarket, analysed over 11.3 million car insurance quotes from the last year and shed some light into the driving habits of drivers.

Specialist heath and safety experts are calling for farmers in Northern to take the necessary steps to help protect those in the agricultural sector from being injured or even killed.

Between 2004 and 2013, 76 people have died as a result of work-related farming incidents in Northern Ireland, while since the start of 2014, in excess of 40 people have died whilst working in agriculture in Ireland. Between 2014-2015, in the UK as a whole, more than 70 farmers have died in such accidents.