Compensation for man injured after car hit mattress

Published on Sunday 15 November 2009 21:48

A PENSIONER has won nearly £4,000 compensation after he was injured by a mattress in the road as he drove along a motorway.

Thomas McKenna, 71, was driving along the M8 between Edinburgh and Glasgow when his car was struck by part of a bed which had come loose and fallen from another vehicle.

A sheriff has ordered Thomas Aitchieson, who had been transporting the mattress, to pay damages of 3,770 to Mr McKenna.

Sheriff Peter Hammond ruled that the accident had aggravated an injury which Mr McKenna, from Greer Quadrant, Clydebank, had suffered in a previous road crash.

In a written judgment at Paisley Sheriff Court, he noted that Mr Aitchieson, of Esk Drive, Paisley, had admitted liability for causing the accident.

Sheriff Hammond said: "On 27 January, 2008, the pursuer was involved in a road traffic accident on the westbound carriageway of the M8 motorway.

"He was driving his Ford Focus when a mattress being carried on a vehicle driven by the defender fell on to the roadway into his path. It had not been properly secured.

"The pursuer was unable to avoid the mattress on the roadway and collided with it, causing him to suffer injury.

"The accident was the fault of the defender. The pursuer sustained a whiplash injury to his neck in the accident."

Sheriff Hammond ruled: "The pursuer's accident was caused by the negligence of the defender.

"The pursuer, having suffered loss, injury and damage due to the defender's negligence, is entitled to reparation.

"The symptoms spoken of by him were entirely consistent with the views expressed in the agreed medical reports, and there is no question, in my view, of the pursuer exaggerating his symptoms.

"He suffered a whiplash injury in a road traffic accident and suffered neck pain radiating into his shoulder."

The sheriff added: "His symptoms will subsist for 26 months following the accident and then be fully resolved. He sought medical attention a few days later and has been on prescribed painkillers since."

Mr McKenna was unavailable for comment yesterday.