Jude Wilson was cycling to work on an Autumn afternoon. He was wearing high visibility clothing but was not wearing a cycling helmet.

His route to work took him along Erith Road (the A206) in London. At the point where his accident occurred, Erith Road had dedicated on-street parking and Jude was in the process of overtaking these parked cars when the accident occurred.

Jude was an experienced cyclist and knew that there was a risk that a driver or passenger in one of these parked cars may suddenly open their doors into his path. He therefore left a gap of approximately 1 metre between his position on the road and the edge of the parked cars should this happen.

Jude noticed one vehicle at the end of the queue of parked cars, which was parked in such a way as to be sticking out slightly into the road, however, this vehicle was completely stationary, was not indicating any intention to pull out, and did not seem to be making any attempts to pull out. Suddenly, as Jude was about to overtake this seemingly parked vehicle, the driver pulled out in front of Jude’s bicycle. Jude braked heavily but could not stop in time and hit the side of the car. Jude was later told by witnesses that when his bike stopped suddenly on impacting with the car, he flew over the handlebars and across the car before hitting the ground.

Witnesses at the scene called for the Emergency Services and an ambulance crew attended the scene. They checked Jude over and felt that he wasn’t suffering from any fractures or too significant injuries but they did recommend that he attended  hospital. Jude, however, did not wish to go to hospital as he did not think that his injuries were too serious and he wished to continue his journey to work.

Over the next few days Jude realised that he had actually suffered a number of soft tissue injuries. In particular, he suffered injuries to his right wrist and hand together with his left shoulder and neck. These injuries affected Jude’s ability to work however he persevered with the pain and was able to manage without taking any time off work.

Jude’s bike was damaged in the accident and, although it wasn’t of particularly high value, it was his primary method for getting to work meaning that, after his accident and whilst he was suffering from his injuries, he had to incur the cost of using his own car and paying for parking.

Jude contacted James at Macks Solicitors who was able to secure an admission of fault from the driver of the car responsible for the accident. Medical evidence was obtained and, fortunately, Jude’s injuries were such that, even had he been wearing a cycling helmet it would not have prevented his injuries and hence no argument was raised that Jude was partly to blame.

Fortunately, none of Jude’s injuries were particularly serious and he did go on to make a full recovery following physiotherapy. James was subsequently able to negotiate settlement of Jude’s personal injury claim for approximately £3,000. This included compensation both for Jude’s injuries and also for his financial losses including the damage to his bicycle and his travel costs to and from work for the period he was without his bicycle.