Advice needed.Injury at work

pjm_82

Hi.

This has been eating away at me for sometime and i just wondered if i could get some info/advice here.

almost 2 years ago i was injured at work. I worked as a security guard for a company . My place of work was a vehicle rental company that hired the security services of the company that i was employed by.

I worked as a night guard on this site and had the same routine each night i worked. i would patrol the site hourly througout the night until 7am in the morning.i also opened up and unlocked all gates.

one morning at around 6am i had opened the gate to allow the first member of staff onsite, around 10 or 15 minutes later i went to do my last patrol following my normal route..

the first part of the route involves walking between 2 buildings to get to the onsite carpark. The gap between the 2 buildings is fairly narrow .

As i was began walking between the 2 buildings i walked straight into a open steel framed window and cut my forehead open pretty badly.

You maybe thinking well i should have been watching where i was going, but the truth is, i had been working a night shift so i knew that there were no windows open as it was my job to ensure that they were closed throughout the night.

however, the member of staff that i have let on site 10 mins earlier was obviously the one who had opened the window. At the time i did report it to the manager and he recorded it in the accident book.

anyway..I ended up having my forehead glued and i now have a one inch scar on my forehead.

The company acknowleged this accident and actually taped all of the potentially dangerous windows closed to prevent another accident.

Ive never been a person to take action and complain about things but now ,2 years have passed and i still have a noticeable scar on my forehead ,i wondered if anyone thought i would be successful in persueing this for compensation.

thanks in advance for anyone who has any input.

agrinnall

You might be successful but I imagine the compensation would be fairly low. If you are still working for the same employer they might be annoyed at being sued and ease you out of your job, so it may not be worth doing. If you aren't then I would suggest you find out first how much your injury is likely to be worth to see if you really want to bother.

Your claim may have to be started within a time limit, probably 3 years.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-rights/legal-system/personal-injury/personal-injuries/

pjm_82

im no longer working for the same employer. so theres no worries there.

Also ..why would you think the compensation would be fairly low,if you dont mind me asking? i thought any facial scar injury would be classed as quite a serious one.

the scar is only around an inch in length ,but it is there on the middle of my forehead nontheless.

my only worry was that it may be looked badly on me for leaving it 2 years before claiming. but to be honest the reason for this is that i wanted to give the scar time to heal as my doctor says any scar takes around 2 years to properly heal.

dickydonkin

agrinnall wrote: »

You might be successful but I imagine the compensation would be fairly low. If you are still working for the same employer they might be annoyed at being sued and ease you out of your job, so it may not be worth doing. If you aren't then I would suggest you find out first how much your injury is likely to be worth to see if you really want to bother.

Your claim may have to be started within a time limit, probably 3 years.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-rights/legal-system/personal-injury/personal-injuries/

Any claim would potentially be against the duty holder of the premises on which the incident occurred - not the OP's employer, although without knowing the full details, it is possible that the OP's employer may also have a share of liability.

Without seeing the location and considering other factors such as lighting, was it an authorised route/pathway, location etc. it would be unwise to suggest that a claim would be successful although there is a three year time limit to make a personal injury claim.

I can sympathise with the OP as a similar thing happened to me when I was a teenager...........I was walking between caravans on a holiday park and inadvertently walked into an open caravan window - I still have the scar on the bridge of my nose!

A consultation with a solicitor would offer more advice, but I would expect that the availability of accident, medical and witness reports may enhance the chances of a successful claim.

swingaloo

pjm_82 wrote: »

im no longer working for the same employer. so theres no worries there.

Also ..why would you think the compensation would be fairly low,if you dont mind me asking? i thought any facial scar injury would be classed as quite a serious one.

the scar is only around an inch in length ,but it is there on the middle of my forehead nontheless.

Honestly! A one inch scar because you were not taking any notice and walked into an open window. As a security person doing a patrol I would have thought you would notice an open window well before walking into it. A one inch scar is not a serious injury.


Have you suffered financial loss, were you off work, have you needed cosmetic surgery, have you needed counselling for the trauma?
No?- well that's why compensation would be fairly low and quite rightly too. It was an accident caused by carelessness.

Transformers

pjm_82 wrote: »

Hi.
You maybe thinking well i should have been watching where i was going, but the truth is, i had been working a night shift so i knew that there were no windows open as it was my job to ensure that they were closed throughout the night.

however, the member of staff that i have let on site 10 mins earlier was obviously the one who had opened the window. At the time i did report it to the manager and he recorded it in the accident book.

I would expect a SECURITY guard to exercise caution and be observant when 'doing the rounds'.

That window could have been opened to break in or for a thief to do a runner.

You were there to be observant and check for anything out of place; yet you are using the fact that the window being open was a surprise as your reason for walking into it. Sorry, that was you not doing your job properly!

ohreally

Any reason the window wasn't fitted with a restrictor, 100mm is pretty standard.

Welfare regs, 15 (2) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/3004/made

Windows, skylights and ventilators

15.—(1) No window, skylight or ventilator which is capable of being opened shall be likely to be opened, closed or adjusted in a manner which exposes any person performing such operation to a risk to his health or safety.
(2) No window, skylight or ventilator shall be in a position when open which is likely to expose any person in the workplace to a risk to his health or safety.

The AcOP further informs, "Open windows, skylights or ventilators should not project into an area where people are likely to collide with them. The bottom edge of opening windows should normally be at least 800 mm above floor level, unless there is a barrier to prevent falls".
Building Regulations1,2 also cover opening and closing windows and there is a
British Standard (BS 8213) that covers windows and skylights

dickydonkin

swingaloo wrote: »

Honestly! A one inch scar because you were not taking any notice and walked into an open window. As a security person doing a patrol I would have thought you would notice an open window well before walking into it. A one inch scar is not a serious injury.


Have you suffered financial loss, were you off work, have you needed cosmetic surgery, have you needed counselling for the trauma?
No?- well that's why compensation would be fairly low and quite rightly too. It was an accident caused by carelessness.

Transformers wrote: »

I would expect a SECURITY guard to exercise caution and be observant when 'doing the rounds'.

That window could have been opened to break in or for a thief to do a runner.

You were there to be observant and check for anything out of place; yet you are using the fact that the window being open was a surprise as your reason for walking into it. Sorry, that was you not doing your job properly!

Here we go again...........ignorance on how or why accidents occur and outrage when the 'c' word is mentioned.

There is always an immediate and underlying cause of an accident, but one major element in the causes of the majority of accidents are 'human factors' - we are human beings - not robots.

Tiredness is potentially a factor in the accident (I suspect alcohol was a major contributory factor into my similar incident!). Age, experience etc are other factors that need to be considered as an underlying reason to why an accident occurred.

Regulations require controls to be put in place such as guarding on machinery to protect the worker from inadvertently placing their hands in a machine for example. I can assure you that nobody desires to have their hand amputated, but all it takes is a lapse of concentration (for whatever reason) and without controls in place for protection, a life changing injury could occur.

To clarify - a scar is not an injury - it is the mark left on the skin following one and if a thief left the window open to 'do a runner', if a thief was already in a building, many may suggest opening the door would be a more effective means of escape!

As ohreally has correctly highlighted, there are regulations in place to prevent an impact with an open window and potentially, the duty holder of the premises may have been in breach of these.

Have a look at the enforcement pages of the HSE's website and many with similar mindsets as those quoted above would believe that there are a lot of 'careless' people without hands, arms, legs and sadly their lives.

The courts deem otherwise - and that's the reality.

OP - as suggested earlier, have a word with a personal injury lawyer and follow his/her advice and ignore the unhelpful posters on here.

Southend1

Are you a member of a trade union? If so you should be able to get legal advice and make a claim if appropriate via your union solicitors.

comeandgo

A scar on the face, unless really deep, does not get a large payout. I have one left after a car accident, a few pounds, nothing more.

Savvy_Sue

There is the school of thought which suggests that scars can add character to a chap's face. That's what I tell DS1, who has a small scar on his forehead after a close encounter with a double glazed door, when he was 2. The door lost.

Also have you tried anything like Bio-oil on it? That's meant to improve scarring.

And scars do continue to fade over time.