Car accidents: if I witness a horrible accident can I claim compensation?
A Guide by Perth Car Accident Lawyer
If you have witnessed a horrible car accident and have been badly affected by what you saw, you may be able to claim compensation. “Witness an accident” does not necessarily only mean “see the accident”. It can also mean “hear the accident”. For example in a recent case in the ACT a claimant was getting into her car when she heard a terrible scream. She quickly realised that a pedestrian had been hit by a car. In the aftermath, she battled with PTSD. She made a claim but the insurance company argued that she hadn’t witnessed the accident because she didn’t see anything. The Court rejected that argument. The Court said that ‘witnessing’ can also mean ‘hearing’ the accident. That witness was paid more than $175,000 in compensation.
Can I claim if I wasn’t involved, I was just a witness
Yes. If you witnessed a car accident and you suffered an injury then you can claim. If you were a passenger or a driver or a pedestrian and you see a nasty accident and you suffer an injury, then you can claim compensation. The reason is that the driver of a car owes a duty of care to all people who could reasonably be affected by their driving, that includes secondary victims such as people in the immediate vicinity, such as other drivers, witnesses, good Samaritans who come to assist etc.
What is an injury
It is a fundamental to any claim that you must have suffered an injury: no injury, no claim. In the world of compensation claims, your injury must be a diagnosed condition. That means: you must have been to a doctor and a doctor must have diagnosed a condition. In simple terms, if you witness an accident and it has affected you, that is normal. It would be unusual for anybody who saw something terrible to not be affected. That is not an injury, that is normal. But if seeing the accident becomes a real problem for you, and you can’t move past it or deal with it, and it starts to affect your daily thinking and intrudes into your work and family life, then that starts to sound like an injury and you should see your GP. If your GP then diagnoses a problem, such as Anxiety, or Depression, or PTSD, now you have an injury.
If you have witnessed an accident and have been affected, please see your GP.
Making a claim
Making a claim because you witnessed a car accident in Perth and have been badly affected by what you saw, can be complicated if the claim is not done properly from the start. A well-managed claim produces the best outcomes. If you have been in a car accident in Perth please feel free to ring or email Lian Hall Injury Law with any questions or queries.
