whiplash claim, 2mph

[98elise]

davek_964 said:

tuneltek said:

whiplash can happen at any speed ,
Last year , I flew back from Bulgaria, got the train to Norwich and had my daughters husband come collect me in my M3.
I had a very stress free journey ,nice and relaxed after a few months relaxing abroad, the plane journey was ok and the train journey again ok.
Got in my car and drove about 3 miles ,and queued at a roundabout, I got to the front of the queue ,was stationary and looking right for a gap in traffic to pull out.
The woman driver behind me pulled forward and hit the back of my car ,pretty much dead in the middle, I felt It but my passenger wasnt sure . swapped insurance details etc and went home.
Unpacked my bags etc ,,couldnt be arsed to open any post until the morning and went to bed...I woke up a couple of hours later in agony..severe neck pain.
After an hour or so I decided to go to hospital...treated like i was making it up and the doctor refused to examine me ,the only time he touched me was to shake my hand as he told me to go home and come back in 2 weeks if it still hurt...over a year later I am still on pain killers and have bad headaches.

Sorry but I'm not convinced. Whiplash is caused by sudden movement of the head - i.e like your head snapping back when you're rear ended. It seems rather unlikely that happened to you whilst your passenger didn't even feel the impact.

Agreed. If the neck was that weak people wouldn't be able to function without half the population being incapacitated at any one time.

Also how come it's mainly the person that gets hit who suffers the injury (even though cars have head restraints)

I grew up in the 70"s and 80. Head rests were not standard fitment and cars were death traps compared to today. I know plenty of mates who've had big accidents and none of us got whiplash.

The only person I do know who's had whiplash was hit while stationary making a right, and the person behind was on their phone and didn't realise she had stopped and ploughed into her. The impact bent the cabin floor!

When I recent got sideswiped on the motorway my younger colleagues universally said I should be claiming for compensation even though I wasn't injured. These are normal everyday people in well paid office jobs...all thinking insurance fraud is a normal part of the the process.

Edited by 98elise on Sunday 23 September 08:39

[TVRnutcase]

Whiplash seems to be a peculiarly UK affliction. Down here, in NZ, with no ability to sue for Personal Injury - whilst whiplash exists, it is a not that common after an accident, unless it is a major one.

Possibly something in the water, or the thought of free cash!!

[chunder27]

You all must have seen the clip of the guys on the bus? And the car stopping suddenly with their mate driving?

A group of men, I guess you might imagine their origin.

One guy in a car up front, three others on a bus, possibly in collusion with the bus driver or just the car owner.

Car slams his brakes on, you have a camera view of the bus, the only three men in the picture are all rubbing their necks as soon as the low speed crash happens.

This takes a lot of planning, and they were found guilty. But you can imagine hos much that cost to go through court, and why it rarely happens.

Insurance companies know it happens, and they all benefit form it eventually, the business is worth billions, so why would they challenge it, it ONLY benefits them.

[bad company]

davek_964 said:

tuneltek said:

whiplash can happen at any speed ,
Last year , I flew back from Bulgaria, got the train to Norwich and had my daughters husband come collect me in my M3.
I had a very stress free journey ,nice and relaxed after a few months relaxing abroad, the plane journey was ok and the train journey again ok.
Got in my car and drove about 3 miles ,and queued at a roundabout, I got to the front of the queue ,was stationary and looking right for a gap in traffic to pull out.
The woman driver behind me pulled forward and hit the back of my car ,pretty much dead in the middle, I felt It but my passenger wasnt sure . swapped insurance details etc and went home.
Unpacked my bags etc ,,couldnt be arsed to open any post until the morning and went to bed...I woke up a couple of hours later in agony..severe neck pain.
After an hour or so I decided to go to hospital...treated like i was making it up and the doctor refused to examine me ,the only time he touched me was to shake my hand as he told me to go home and come back in 2 weeks if it still hurt...over a year later I am still on pain killers and have bad headaches.

Sorry but I'm not convinced. Whiplash is caused by sudden movement of the head - i.e like your head snapping back when you're rear ended. It seems rather unlikely that happened to you whilst your passenger didn't even feel the impact.

This.

The neck pain and headaches are probably not caused by whiplash.

[cbmotorsport]

Gavia said:

cbmotorsport said:

Hit a Peugeot 206 from behind on a wet road a couple of years ago. Probably 5mph. Case has just been settled. Car repairs were £460 for a repainted bumper on his car, and..... £35,000 personal injury. He refused to get out the car, and demanded an ambulance. He knew how to play the game and had probably been waiting his whole life for someone to hit him. He sat there waiting for the ambulance smoking cigarettes, and laughing.

Rubbish. Injury claim payouts are controlled via the JSB. Unless he lost a limb he didn’t receive that amount.

OK, my mistake, looking at the paperwork from our insurer, it was £35k TOTAL claim, so assume he had loss of earnings or whatever involved in that. Anyway, my point was that there are total wasters/chancers out there who screw the system to everyone else's detriment.

[Paul Dishman]

Buster73 said:

Someone let a shopping trolley go in the supermarket car park and damaged my wife’s car , had phone calls for over a year promising at least £5k in compensation for injuries suffered during the “accident”.

To this day we never found out who passed the details onto these companies.

My son had a similar experience after someone hit his car in the car park at work, while he was in the office.

Some low-life ambulance chaser rang up to say that he was still entitled to compo despite not actually being in the car.

[Sa Calobra]

With modern headrests is whiplash even possible?

[bad company]

Paul Dishman said:

Buster73 said:

Someone let a shopping trolley go in the supermarket car park and damaged my wife’s car , had phone calls for over a year promising at least £5k in compensation for injuries suffered during the “accident”.

To this day we never found out who passed the details onto these companies.

My son had a similar experience after someone hit his car in the car park at work, while he was in the office.

Some low-life ambulance chaser rang up to say that he was still entitled to compo despite not actually being in the car.

Yep, I had the same when my TVR was scraped while parked at a supermarket. The caller didn’t want to take no for an answer even when I told him nobody was in the car at the time.

[Saleen836]

Sa Calobra said:

With modern headrests is whiplash even possible?

yes of course it is especially if you get hit from the side...ask me how I know!

[Martin_Hx]

i was hit from behind when stationary at a roundabout, he probably only hit me at something lower than 10mph but it was a right jolt.

Settled the repairs out of insurance but a few days later i had a stiff neck/shoulder but this only lasted a day or so and was easily manageable. I can imagine it being worrying at a higher impact speed though

[bad company]

I had a whiplash injury following a fall from a horse. It was bloody painful for a week or 2. I had an office job so was able to carry on working but would never have been able to carry on with a manual job.

I’m just saying that not all whiplash claims are made up.

[Durzel]

At what point though do the fraudulent claims make the whole system untenable?

I mean it sucks if you have whiplash through no fault of your own, but unless it suddenly becomes possible to eliminate dodgy doctors or make whiplash unambiguously provable then I think we'd maybe be better off if no one got payouts from it.

[bad company]

Durzel said:

At what point though do the fraudulent claims make the whole system untenable?

I mean it sucks if you have whiplash through no fault of your own, but unless it suddenly becomes possible to eliminate dodgy doctors or make whiplash unambiguously provable then I think we'd maybe be better off if no one got payouts from it.

What about a victim left unable to work for a while though no fault of their own?

[Durzel]

Collateral damage.

As said earlier - other countries don't recognise it (or at least don't support compensation). The British constitution seems to be particularly bad when it comes to suffering whiplash.

[anonymous-user]

I got hit at 50-60 mph, side impact, seatbelts locked up and did their job, to this day i still get severe pain under my shoulder blade, arm aches constantly and my shoulder joint is constantly "clicking".

My wifes side of the car went into the side barrier and she has had back / shoulder pain ever since, we were both fine bfore the accident.

Necks were OK after a few days though!

[davek_964]

Lord.Vader said:

I got hit at 50-60 mph, side impact, seatbelts locked up and did their job, to this day i still get severe pain under my shoulder blade, arm aches constantly and my shoulder joint is constantly "clicking".

My wifes side of the car went into the side barrier and she has had back / shoulder pain ever since, we were both fine bfore the accident.

Necks were OK after a few days though!

Did you receive compensation for the injuries? I assume it's more complicated than "I have whiplash"?

[Durzel]

In the absence of anything clear on x-rays or whatever, and I don't suppose x-rays are done frivolously either, then in all likelihood even a professional doctor is going to ask a bunch of questions and sign you off. A dodgy one is just going to sign off on it anyway.

I went to the doctors recently after I banged my head. I had a few tests that weren't necessarily definitive but based on the answers I gave I was officially signed off work with concussion. I actually felt rubbish but had I just researched concussion beforehand it wouldn't have been particularly hard to just say the right things, feign pain or discomfort when prodded etc.

From the doctors point of view if you pitch up and make all the right noises then even if there isn't clearly anything physically wrong with you from the outside then I can't imagine they'll be comfortable not signing you off, in case there is any comeback on them.

Edited by Durzel on Tuesday 25th September 13:30

[davek_964]

Durzel said:

In the absence of anything clear on x-rays or whatever, and I don't suppose x-rays are done frivolously either, then in all likelihood even a professional doctor is going to ask a bunch of questions and sign you off. A dodgy one is just going to sign off on it anyway.

I went to the doctors recently after I banged my head. I had a few tests that weren't necessarily definitive but based on the answers I gave I was officially signed off work with concussion. I actually felt rubbish but had I just researched concussion beforehand it wouldn't have been particularly hard to just say the right things, feign pain or discomfort when prodded etc.

I must admit - there was absolutely no chance that I would claim any kind of personal injury after my accident on Tuesday - it was far too low speed. Having said that - about 10am on Wednesday morning, I was sitting at work and suddenly thought : Hmm, I really should have used it as an excuse for a couple of days off!