Hannah Saxena successfully defends serious pedestrian claim for bus company

Published: 14/12/2021 | News


Hannah Saxena appeared for a bus company in a claim brought by a 22 year old female pedestrian who had been hit by a bus in London, after she walked out at a junction, without looking.  The claimant sustained serious pelvic fractures and was claiming over £600,000 in damages.

HHJ Baucher found that the bus driver reacted within a reasonable time and it was also reasonable for his attention to not have been focused solely or particularly on the claimant after she had stopped for over 2 seconds a foot away from the kerb and appeared to be observing the red man signal for pedestrians.

HHJ Baucher found that the bus speed of just under 15mph in a 20mph speed limit area was reasonable and that the driver could not have reasonably been expected to sound his horn.

The claim was dismissed but HHJ Baucher found that even if the defendant had been liable then this was the sort of case where a pedestrian would have been more at fault than the driver and the liability split would have been 25:75 in the defendant’s favour.

Hannah was instructed by Liam McGuire at Weightmans.