Lorry Accident Claims
HGV and commercial vehicle collisions
A collision with a lorry is not the same claim as a collision with a car, and the difference works in your favour more often than people expect. Lorries carry equipment that records what the driver was doing, and their operators are required by law to keep that data. We handle lorry accident claims on a No Win No Fee basis.
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The lorry was recording what the driver was doing
In most road accidents the argument comes down to two accounts of the same few seconds. Lorries are different. A goods vehicle over 3.5 tonnes carries a tachograph, the driver has a card, and the operator is required by law to keep pulling that data off on a fixed cycle. It exists whether or not anybody wants it to.
The limits a driver has to work within
- A maximum of 9 hoursdriving a day, which can go up to 10 hours twice in a fixed week
- A maximum of 56 hours driving in a week
- A maximum of 90 hours driving across any two weeks
- A break of at least 45 minutes after no more than 4.5 hours at the wheel
- At least 11 hours of continuous rest in each 24-hour period, reducible to 9 hours no more than three times between weekly rests
Source: GOV.UK guidance on drivers’ hours and tachographs for goods vehicles.
And the data does not simply sit there
Operators are required to download tachograph data from the vehicle unit every 90 days and from each driver card every 28 days. At the roadside a driver has to be able to produce records for the current day and the previous 28 calendar days, and a DVSA examiner or a police officer can ask for them.
Alongside that there is usually telematics, a forward-facing camera, GPS, delivery scheduling and maintenance records. Large fleets generate a great deal of paper, and most of it is dated.
This is why the first thing a solicitor does on a lorry claim is write to preserve it.
To be clear about what this proves. A driver being over their hours does not automatically make the operator liable for your injuries. What it does is establish that a rule designed to stop tired people driving lorries was being broken, which is a very different starting point from two drivers disagreeing about who had right of way. It also tends to focus the insurer’s mind considerably earlier than it otherwise would.
Who can make a lorry accident claim?
Anyone injured in a collision involving a lorry, HGV or commercial vehicle where somebody else was at fault, in whole or in part. That covers more people than most realise.
You may be able to claim if you were
- A driver or passenger in a vehicle hit by a lorry
- A pedestrian, cyclist or motorcyclist struck by an HGV
- An HGV driver injured by another road user’s negligence
- Injured by an unsecured or shed load, or by an overturned vehicle
- Injured by a mechanical failure the operator should have caught
- A family member bringing a claim after a fatal collision
Who the claim is against
Usually the driver’s insurer, and often the haulage operator alongside them, because an employer is generally responsible for what its drivers do in the course of their work. Where poor maintenance, unrealistic scheduling or unsafe loading contributed, the operator is squarely in the frame in its own right.
If the lorry was never traced, or turned out to be uninsured, there is still a route through the Motor Insurers’ Bureau. Do not assume an untraced vehicle is the end of it.
If you were on foot, on a bike or on a motorbike, this bit is worth knowing. Since the whiplash reforms, many lower-value road traffic claims are handled through a portal designed for people to use without a solicitor, and legal costs are not recoverable in the same way. Vulnerable road users are excluded from that route.
For this purpose, a road user is treated as vulnerable if at the time of the accident they were using a motorcycle, were a pillion or sidecar passenger, were using a wheelchair, powered wheelchair or mobility scooter, were riding a bicycle or other pedal cycle, were riding a horse, or were a pedestrian. Claims by children and by protected parties are also outside it.
In practice that means a cyclist or pedestrian hit by a lorry is not funnelled into the portal, and can have a solicitor act in the ordinary way. Very few people know this, and it is the kind of thing that decides whether someone bothers to get advice at all.
Common causes of lorry accidents
A loaded articulated lorry can weigh forty times what a car weighs and needs a great deal more room to stop. That is why the same mistake made in a lorry and in a car produces very different outcomes.
- Fatigue and hours breaches.
Driving beyond the legal limits, or without the required breaks, on schedules that were never realistic. - Blind spots and left turns.
The nearside blind spot is where a great many cyclist and pedestrian collisions happen, and mirror and camera systems exist precisely because of it. - Stopping distance misjudged.
Following too closely, or braking too late for the load being carried.
- Loads that shifted or were shed.
Badly secured, badly distributed, or simply too heavy. - Maintenance and mechanical failure.
Brakes, tyres and steering, where the inspection records usually tell the story. - Distraction, speed and manoeuvring.
Including reversing and turning in yards and at delivery points. - Weather and road conditions.
Which is a reason to slow down rather than a defence for not having done.
Injuries from these collisions tend to be at the severe end. Crush injuries and amputations, spinal and head injuries, multiple fractures, and psychological injury which is very common and very often left out of a claim. See amputation claims and PTSD compensation claims.
What can you claim compensation for?
A claim has two halves. What the injury has done to you, and what it has cost you. On lorry collisions the second half is frequently the larger of the two.
The injury itself
Assessed against published brackets once an independent medical expert has examined you and given a view on how much of it is permanent. Psychological injury is assessed separately from the physical injury and is worth raising early, because it is the thing most often left out.
On serious injuries the assessment usually waits until the picture has settled, which is why these claims are not quick.
What it has cost you
- Earnings lost, and future earnings where you cannot return to the same work
- Treatment, rehabilitation and physiotherapy, including privately where the wait is long
- Care and help at home, including care given unpaid by family
- Vehicle damage, replacement and hire
- Adaptations to a home or a vehicle where they are needed
- Travel and the smaller out-of-pocket costs that add up
Why there is no figure on this page. Compensation on a serious injury turns on the medical prognosis and on what the injury does to your ability to earn, and neither is known at the enquiry stage. On claims of this kind an interim payment can often be arranged during the case to cover treatment or lost income, which is usually the more useful answer to the question underneath the question.
Evidence that supports a lorry accident claim
Most of the useful material on a lorry claim is held by the operator, which is the argument for acting early rather than waiting to see how you recover.
Has the insurer already been in touch? On serious collisions insurers often make contact early and directly. You are not obliged to give a recorded statement, to use their medical expert, or to accept an early offer. An offer made before the evidence exists cannot be based on what the claim is worth, because at that point nobody knows.
No Win No Fee lorry accident claims
A No Win No Fee agreement, properly called a Conditional Fee Agreement, means there is nothing to pay upfront. If the claim does not succeed, you do not pay us for our work, subject to the terms of your agreement.
If it succeeds, a success fee agreed with you in advance comes out of your compensation. There is a legal cap on that fee in personal injury claims, and it is worth understanding properly: the cap is calculated on your damages for the injury itself and your past financial losses, not on the whole settlement, because future losses are left out of the calculation. Your agreement will set out the exact percentage in writing before you sign.
Ask us to walk you through the figures, including what happens to disbursements and whether any insurance is taken out on your behalf, rather than taking a headline percentage on trust. That applies to any firm you speak to.
Farm accident claims
your questions answered
The questions we are asked most, answered plainly.
Can I claim if I was cycling or walking when a lorry hit me?
What is a tachograph and why does it matter to my claim?
A tachograph is the device fitted to goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes that records driving time, speed and rest. Drivers have their own card and operators are required to download the data from the vehicle every ninety days and from each driver card every twenty-eight days. It matters because it can show whether the driver was within the legal limits: up to nine hours driving a day, extendable to ten twice a week, a maximum of fifty-six hours in a week, and a break of at least forty-five minutes after no more than four and a half hours at the wheel. A breach does not automatically make anyone liable, but it changes the conversation considerably.
Can I claim against the haulage company as well as the driver?
Usually yes. An employer is generally responsible for what its drivers do in the course of their work, so the operator is normally brought into the claim alongside the driver. Beyond that, the operator can be at fault in its own right, for example where vehicles were not properly maintained, where loads were unsafely secured, or where the schedule made it difficult to comply with the drivers’ hours rules. Establishing that usually means looking at the operator’s own records rather than at the driver’s account.
How long do I have to make a lorry accident claim?
In most cases three years from the date of the accident, under the Limitation Act 1980. If the injured person was under eighteen at the time, the three years begins on their eighteenth birthday, so they have until they are twenty-one. Where someone lacks the mental capacity to conduct a claim, the limitation period may be paused while that remains the case. Separately from the deadline, there is a practical reason to move early: camera footage held by third parties is often overwritten within days.
What if the lorry drove off, or turned out to be uninsured?
There is still a route. The Motor Insurers’ Bureau exists to deal with claims where the vehicle responsible was untraced or uninsured, and it operates under separate agreements with their own requirements and deadlines. Reporting the collision to the police matters here, so do that if you have not already. An untraced vehicle makes a claim harder to run, not impossible, and it is worth asking rather than assuming nothing can be done.
Can I claim if I was partly to blame?
Often, yes. Where an injured person contributed to what happened, the usual result is that compensation is reduced to reflect their share rather than refused altogether. It is worth being upfront about it when you first speak to a solicitor, because being partly at fault is very common and it is much better dealt with at the start than raised against you later. Insurers on lorry claims frequently open by suggesting contributory fault, and that opening position is not the same as the final answer.
Find out where you stand
Tell us what happened and how you have been since. We will explain which route applies to you, what it would involve, and whether it is worth pursuing. If it is not, we will say so.
- Free, confidential and without obligation
- No Win No Fee available
- SRA-regulated solicitors
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Other claims we handle
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The useful thing about a collision with a lorry is that so much of what happened was being recorded at the time. The unhelpful thing is that somebody has to ask for it before it is written over. If you are still deciding whether to bring a claim, it is worth making the call while that evidence still exists. The conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
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