no seat belt

lorr01

Registered User
Messages
197
hi

could anyone help me on this please.. a male friend of mine was driving his car and he went and picked up his mates and 2 of them sat in the back sea and the driver told them to put on there seat bealts and one of them in the back of the car did, and one didnt. they are all over 18, and he crashed the car and the lad with no seat belt dis- located his hip and had to have surgery, he is now thinking about suing his mate the driver for hospital expenses.

(a)is the driver at fault in this situation even though he told him to wear a sealtbelt and he wouldnt or
(b)is the passanger at fault and cud he claim of the driver..

not sure what or who is at fault in this situation

thanks a mill
 
Taken from www.rsa.ie

Legal obligations

Unless exempted, every person in a car is legally obliged to wear a seat belt where one is fitted. That includes drivers and front and rear passengers. The driver is responsible for ensuring that passengers under 17 years of age comply with the law.
 
It doesn't matter whether he was wearing a seatbelt or not, the driver is responsible for the safety of his passengers.
 
originally posted by bobk
It doesn't matter whether he was wearing a seatbelt or not, the driver is responsible for the safety of his passengers
Bobk is correct - although any insurance company will mitigate their loss as much as possible by using this information. Roughly speaking, QDI, (for example) will reduce any offer by 25%, as this person contributed to their own injury by not wearing the seat belt.
 
The driver is responsible for ensuring that passengers under 17 years of age comply with the law.
It was my understanding that say if you got caught by the guards, that if a passenger under the age of 17 the driver is liable to have points put on their license, however if the passenger is over 17 the passenger is fined as it is their responsibility to ensure they have a seatbelt on.
 
It was my understanding that say if you got caught by the guards, that if a passenger under the age of 17 the driver is liable to have points put on their license, however if the passenger is over 17 the passenger is fined as it is their responsibility to ensure they have a seatbelt on.
ya that what i undrerstood aswell. the passanger was 21 years old and wouldnt wear a seat belt
 
Finally found something on the web to settle the points row on the national safety council website;

Q. Will a driver be liable for penalty points if passengers over 17 years of age are not restrained in a vehicle?

A driver will not be responsible for the compliance of a passenger (aged 17 and over) in relation to the use of a safety belt and will not be liable to incur a fixed charge or penalty points for any breach of the 1991 safety belt regulations committed by that passenger.
A fixed charge of €60, which increases to €90 after 28 days, or prosecution in court applies to any passenger aged 17 or over who does not wear a safety belt while being driven in a vehicle in a public place.

Despite all of this - if the accident was yr mates fault, the guy with the dislocated hip can still claim from yr mate.
 
Finally found something on the web to settle the points row on the national safety council website;

Q. Will a driver be liable for penalty points if passengers over 17 years of age are not restrained in a vehicle?

A driver will not be responsible for the compliance of a passenger (aged 17 and over) in relation to the use of a safety belt and will not be liable to incur a fixed charge or penalty points for any breach of the 1991 safety belt regulations committed by that passenger.
A fixed charge of €60, which increases to €90 after 28 days, or prosecution in court applies to any passenger aged 17 or over who does not wear a safety belt while being driven in a vehicle in a public place.

Despite all of this - if the accident was yr mates fault, the guy with the dislocated hip can still claim from yr mate.
thanks a million for finding that out for me.
 
Finally found something on the web to settle the points row on the national safety council website;

Q. Will a driver be liable for penalty points if passengers over 17 years of age are not restrained in a vehicle?

A driver will not be responsible for the compliance of a passenger (aged 17 and over) in relation to the use of a safety belt and will not be liable to incur a fixed charge or penalty points for any breach of the 1991 safety belt regulations committed by that passenger.
A fixed charge of €60, which increases to €90 after 28 days, or prosecution in court applies to any passenger aged 17 or over who does not wear a safety belt while being driven in a vehicle in a public place.

Despite all of this - if the accident was yr mates fault, the guy with the dislocated hip can still claim from yr mate.
my mate skidded on ice he reckons and over turned the car, i dont no much more about the accident but the back seat passanger is suing for medical expenses, and he would not wear he seat belt when asked to put it on.
 
Unfortunately for you friend, duty of care still applies - the guy with the dislocated hip can claim for loss of earnings, physio, medication, hospital + GP visits and pain and suffering. Just had a mooch on the PIAB website, if he went thru PIAB, and/or a solicitor he could expect a minimum of €19600 for the pain and suffering element plus all out-of-pocket expenses! The insurance company will try to lessen the pay-out of the pain and suffering element by citing contributary negligence, despite this the payout on this claim will be stiff, so prepare yr friend.
 
Unfortunately for you friend, duty of care still applies - the guy with the dislocated hip can claim for loss of earnings, physio, medication, hospital + GP visits and pain and suffering. Just had a mooch on the PIAB website, if he went thru PIAB, and/or a solicitor he could expect a minimum of €19600 for the pain and suffering element plus all out-of-pocket expenses! The insurance company will try to lessen the pay-out of the pain and suffering element by citing contributary negligence, despite this the payout on this claim will be stiff, so prepare yr friend.
how are you,

thanks a million for looking up all that for me, ur very good.
il tell him all you said, i was in a car crash last yr myself and have had 19 operations on my arm already as i have no feeling in it since crash. a man came out in front of me and then left the scene but was caught and is now taking all responsibility. i had a discloated shoulder, a cracked rib, and very bad break to my right arm and very bad nerve damage, and othe injuroes to my back etc. im still seeing lots of back specialiss, nerologists, surgeons, phyios councellors and others,and am taking 29 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX a day and morphine patches, and am a qualified legal secretary but cant go back to that type work again. so have gone through alot torture so hopefully all my pain and suffering the insurance team will not try and lessen my pain and suffering and i get a fair justiable amount from the high court.

not that anything i do get will bring back the use of my arm.
 
If you are happy with the way that the insurance company is handling your claim, then there's no reason not to stay with them BUT, on the minus side, bear in mind that any offer they make will be less than if you were going thru PIAB with or without a solicitor on board. On the plus side you wait less time for your settlement - once both yourself and the insurance company have reached a figure that you can agree on, you tend to have your chq within a week.

There is a 2 year limit on pursuing a claim thru PIAB. The application forms are on the web and it costs €50 to submit your application. You can get a solicitor to do it for you, (maybe your old boss for a set fee??) if you don't feel confident doing it on your own, (this is assuming that you wish to go down this road). Some people find the PIAB process to be very clinical and would rather settle, put the incident behind them and move on. It's different for everyone.

Either way, keep every receipt that you can for meds, physio, GP/hospital visits etc. as these will be added to any award for pain and suffering. If you stay out of PIAB, the insurance company should be making allowances for future losses but, as it would appear from your post that your injury is on-going and most likely permanent - I would have thought that this area would be the hardest to determine as you can no longer work in your trained field. I'm assuming too that any car would have to specially modified for you use - the impact on your daily life would be very hard for the insurance company to put into monetary terms.

Why not have a chat with your former boss for a bit more advice?
Amanda
 
I'd be fairly confident that a former legal secretary will already have a solicitor acting for her. Anyone who knows anything detailed about PIAB would be unlikely to go without a solicitor.
 
originally posted by Vanilla
Anyone who knows anything detailed about PIAB would be unlikely to go without a solicitor.
You're probably right Vanilla. I haven't come across anyone going thru PIAB without a brief yet - but it will happen, I suppose eventually.

I thought that the whole point of PIAB was to make awards more standardised, (so that people with similar injuries received similar award) and to simplify the process, so that anyone could claim personal injury without a solicitor, (and watch a large % of their award be gone straight away)
 
If you are happy with the way that the insurance company is handling your claim, then there's no reason not to stay with them BUT, on the minus side, bear in mind that any offer they make will be less than if you were going thru PIAB with or without a solicitor on board. On the plus side you wait less time for your settlement - once both yourself and the insurance company have reached a figure that you can agree on, you tend to have your chq within a week.

There is a 2 year limit on pursuing a claim thru PIAB. The application forms are on the web and it costs €50 to submit your application. You can get a solicitor to do it for you, (maybe your old boss for a set fee??) if you don't feel confident doing it on your own, (this is assuming that you wish to go down this road). Some people find the PIAB process to be very clinical and would rather settle, put the incident behind them and move on. It's different for everyone.

Either way, keep every receipt that you can for meds, physio, GP/hospital visits etc. as these will be added to any award for pain and suffering. If you stay out of PIAB, the insurance company should be making allowances for future losses but, as it would appear from your post that your injury is on-going and most likely permanent - I would have thought that this area would be the hardest to determine as you can no longer work in your trained field. I'm assuming too that any car would have to specially modified for you use - the impact on your daily life would be very hard for the insurance company to put into monetary terms.

Why not have a chat with your former boss for a bit more advice?
Amanda
hi amanda

i have a solicitor on my case alright and i was at beginning of case going to be sorted by piab route but now the piab crowd said my case is to big for them to settle with a figure, so it is going to the high court. with all the complications ive had with injuries i wouldnt have managed without a solicitor, so the solicitor i worked with is taking the case on .
i wouldnt wish the pain im in on anybody and the impact on my life is terrible, but im certain the insurance company will not have much problem in settling with a figure.

to this day and its 2 year since last week i have never heard a figure of what i should get or am entitled to for my injuries so im not sure about what i should get yet!!
 
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