Person tripped over my outside cable cover whilst charging car...

joeythepoey

Hi Folks,

Not sure what would be the best place to post this, so I figured I'd try here.

We often charge our car at home as costs for lamp post charging have nearly tripled in price, and we have a favourable deal with Octopus that makes it cheap to charge at home overnight.

We live in a residential neighbourhood and I bought two heavy duty cable covers for the charging cable so we can run the cable from our home to our car - it covers the width of the pavement.
Overnight I've started adding a little string of led lights under the cover so it's more lit up at night - but these run out on occasion as they're battery operated.
There is street lighting but I think it gets turned off/dimmed after midnight.

Despite the big yellow line on the covers, people occasionally trip over it during the morning because they were locked onto their phone.

However, a couple of days ago someone tripped over it at around 1 in the morning and seemingly hurt themselves quite badly, with a bump on their forehead and a scratched knee.
I was away at work but they rang our door bell the following morning apparently wanting to claim a personal injury - my wife wasn't able to deal with at the time as she'd just suffered a bereavement.

What legal recourse might this person have?

We've always done our best to ensure the cover is as obvious as possible, but there's only so much you can do...photo attached.

Thanks for your help!

HillStreetBlues

They can claim against you. Bottom line is if it happened their injuries are down to you wanting to save money.

Flugelhorn

I would be pretty cheesed if someone left that on a pavement at night, people can have poor vision etc - can't you just charge the car somewhere else ?
 
actually just thinking about it am surprised no-one has removed the cable cover  and "relocated it" 

if you do this - does the insurance company need to know about the hazard ? would they cover you for something outside the house?

HampshireH

Do you own the pavement over which you are running the cable or if not do you have the consent of the council or housing association/landowner to do so?

Most housing associations won't give consent for cables which cross public footpaths for this very reason.

They can claim against you but also potentially the land owner who will then probably investigate and aim to defend any claim should one arise which will put you in the spotlight anyway.

If you own the footpath your insurance should handle any claim 

facade

A quick google and this isn't as simple as it appears.

You would have thought that it would be simple- if you are negligent in leaving a charging cable across a pavement at night and someone is injured by it then you would be liable, and your insurance should cover you.

You obviously foresaw a risk of injury to others from the trip hazard and took steps to mitigate it with a cable cover, (and lights that you knew wouldn't be working- I wouldn't mention them)

It should be your car insurance, as the injury to a third party arose as a result of the use of your car on the public highway (pavement is part of the highway).

Your house insurance should also have personal liability cover for incidents arising from your use of the property. 

(No doubt both insurers would insist that it is covered by the other)

Even assuming that you are found to be negligent (which is not clear cut apparently- another surprise!) there is the principle of "Culpable Responsibility". If the third party was playing on their 'phone whilst walking, then it is partially their own fault that they didn't see it and they might be deemed 25% responsible- so you would only be liable for 75% of their claim. (They would need to admit that, or your side has to prove it)

It is probably time to be ringing your insurer (I'd start with the car insurer) for advice from their legal team.

elsien

OP hasn’t said how they know that people tripping over the cable are “locked onto” their phones so it may well be just a presumption. And potentially an inaccurate one.

An unexpected cable cover across the pavement with no street lighting doesn’t need someone to be looking at their phone to be tripped over

Emmia

And whilst it's more expensive, you'd probably be better switching to the lamp post charger.

Aretnap

Flugelhorn said:

if you do this - does the insurance company need to know about the hazard ? would they cover you for something outside the house?

They don't need to be told unless they specifically asked about it. I've never seen a car or home insurance proposal form which and about how you charge your car.

Shouldn't really matter that it was outside the house, most home insurance policies have a broad personal liability section that concern most liabilities that you might incur inside or outside your home. The main exceptions are usually liabilities relating to your employment/business, and liabilities relating to the use of a motor vehicle so as not to overlap with car insurance.

The complication might be if the insurer argues that this relates to use of a motor vehicle. If it does then it should be covered by car insurance instead, but you could get a situation where each insurer claims it's the other's problem. Not sure whether it's yet we'll established which insurance covers incidents like this.

FlorayG

My thoughts are that you are totally liable; when 'official' workmen lay cables they route the pedestrian access into the road around them, you would never have to walk over them. Your insurance will know.
If one of my neighbours did that I would be first asking them not to and if no effect speaking with the council. You're obstructing the pavement, however well you mark the obstruction

Emmia

FlorayG said:

My thoughts are that you are totally liable; when 'official' workmen lay cables they route the pedestrian access into the road around them, you would never have to walk over them. Your insurance will know.
If one of my neighbours did that I would be first asking them not to and if no effect speaking with the council. You're obstructing the pavement, however well you mark the obstruction

That's not always the case,  covers can also be used for utility works... but the workmen in that case would have local authority authorisation - which the OP doesn't have (I'll assume they don't own the pavement they're crossing), and normally the covers used by utility companies are substantially wider and flatter.

user1977

If you have any sort of home insurance then that probably includes third party cover, so if you receive a claim you chuck it to the insurers to deal with. Though there might be a question about whether it covers things you do outside the property boundaries.