MP calls for new road accident laws

A Labour MP has called for legislation to ensure that people involved in road traffic accidents are eligible for compensation even when liability can not be established.

Brian Iddon presented his Road Traffic (Accident Compensation) Bill on Wednesday, which makes provisions for no-fault compensation for personal injury in road accidents.

Speaking ahead of the debate, he told ePolitix.com that he decided to put forward the bill after one of his Bolton South East constituents was hit by a car driven by a man suffering from a heart attack.

The driver died shortly after the accident and Iddon said that neither his constituent's insurance company, nor that of the driver, would pay out.

This "illustrates a small but unfair piece of lack of justice", the MP said.

He went on: "Here we have a gentleman who is crippled for life, who had to give up a high earning job as a research chemist, and has not got a penny's worth of compensation. Through no fault of his own this car hit him."

Having discussed the case with three different ministers, different government departments, both insurance companies and the Association of British Insurers, Iddon said he had done all he could for his constituent.

"So I think the law needs changing," he said. "Obviously with ten minute rule bills you have a hell of a job getting anywhere so what we are trying to do is flag this up hoping that either the insurance industry will change their regulations to pay out in these cases or the government will do something about it.

"I'm not going to stop this campaign, this is just a way of flagging it up and then I think we might pursue it in future with an adjournment debate where a minister is forced to come and give the government opinion.

"But we shall keep highlighting this until maybe somebody takes it up after I've retired and wins the battle."

Fund
Presenting his bill, Iddon called for a fund to be established to provide for those injured on the roads.

He told MPs that under current law negligence and liability must be established before compensation can be paid out.

But automatism - or involuntary action - can be used as a defence in some when liability cannot be established.

He said that cases such as his constituent's were so rare that they are often looked on "sympathetically" by insurance companies, who are prepared to make ex-gratia payments to the injured party.

But Halifax insurance, the company representing the deceased driver, refused to do this in the case of Iddon's constituent.

Pointing to a scheme in New Zealand aimed at ensuring everyone can receive compensation, he said "there would be considerable merit in the government looking again at this issue of no-fault compensation".

"I am determined to protect other people from experiencing the unfairness of the situation that my constituent now finds himself in," he added.

And insisting the fund was "unlikely to be a great burden on our insurance industry", he stressed the need to ensure that insurance companies do "not try to get out of their responsibilities where compensation is concerned".

"I believe that the establishment of this fund to allow for compensation to be made available to the very small number of people who are affected in this way would go some way to ameliorating an unfair situation that a tiny minority of people... find themselves in every year," Iddon said.