injured after tripping on Virgin Media wires

MyRealNameToo

Lupamonkey said:

MyRealNameToo said:

Do you have legal expenses insurance on your Home insurance? They will typically cover making PI claims and will consider who should be pursued. 

Thank you! For some reason, I hadn't thought of that. Partners is digging out our policy as I type. 

Update: Nope, don't have PI cover   

It wouldnt be personal injury cover, it would be legal expenses cover and one of the types of claims they typically cover is personal injury. 

35har1old said:

MyRealNameToo said:

Lupamonkey said:

This weekend my foot got caught in some Virgin media cable sticking out of someone's house while I was walking down the street. I went sprawling across the pavement and landed on my wrist. It hurt like hell!

5 hours at A&E later I came away with my arm in plaster. I have a fractured wrist.

My partner witnessed it, and took loads of photos of the cables, and recognised that they were Virgin media Cables. (See pics)

I had no idea if I ought to have knocked on the homeowner's door. I'm quite un-confrontational, so we just went home.

Instead, I contacted Virgin Media via Facebook to report it, and they sent out engineers and fixed the cables the next day. (see last pic). They even gave me the email address to make an injury claim. My friends are all saying "where there's a blame, there's a claim". So I'm now considering this.

My question is, should I pursue an injury claim direct with them, or is it advisable to go through a no win no fee company? If so, who is the best one to go with? 

Or should I be contacting the homeowner and going thought their home insurance? 

I'm pretty clueless, as I've never had to do this before! 

Do you have legal expenses insurance on your Home insurance? They will typically cover making PI claims and will consider who should be pursued. 

Usally only when it occurred on your own property 

Thats the one place it certainly won't cover because you can't sue yourself for negligently leaving something which you later trip over. 

Lupamonkey

Nasqueron said:

Purely as devil's advocate, that wiring would be difficult to hook your leg in given how close it is to the wall and piping, it would have only have been pulled out so far after it was pulled by your trip.

It's unfortunate you got injured but I don't see how this is somehow the fault of Virgin, the council or even the home owner.

I really appreciate your comments and completely take your point. I've even had all these discussions with my partner. How is it Virgin Media's fault etc etc. Why were we THAT close to the wall?

You’re not the first person to suggest that the wire may have been flush with the wall and therefore difficult to trip over — and yes, I’ve even had one person ask if I’d been drinking at the time! That was particularly galling!

From my perspective, though, the wire was already looped and protruding enough to catch a foot. I was walking side by side with my partner, and we believe that because of the positioning of a nearby signpost, we naturally veered closer to the wall (extra pic added to illustrate). Unfortunately, the cable was sticking out just enough at that spot to catch my foot as I walked. Perfect storm? 

While it’s impossible to be absolutely certain of the exact mechanics of my trip, what I do know for sure is that I would not now have a broken wrist if those wires hadn’t been there.

I actually plucked up the courage yesterday to knock on the occupant’s door. She told me she wasn’t even aware of any Virgin Media cables, as she doesn’t use their services. In truth, she seemed quite vague and nervous, and I chose to end the conversation before raising anything further, such as insurance details.

My view is that if a household ends its contract, Virgin Media should take responsibility for either removing redundant wires, or at least carrying out some form of maintenance check, even if they wish to leave infrastructure in place for future tenants.

Ultimately, I reported the hazard to Virgin Media, they fixed it immediately, and they provided me with an email address to pursue a claim. 

And just to be clear, any suggestion that I am abusing the process is in poor taste. I appreciate the whole devil's advocate stance, as that would indeed be any legal team's attitude too, but this is a genuine injury, and I’m simply trying to find the right way forward.

saajan_12

Lupamonkey said:

Nasqueron said:

Purely as devil's advocate, that wiring would be difficult to hook your leg in given how close it is to the wall and piping, it would have only have been pulled out so far after it was pulled by your trip.

It's unfortunate you got injured but I don't see how this is somehow the fault of Virgin, the council or even the home owner.

I really appreciate your comments and completely take your point. I've even had all these discussions with my partner. How is it Virgin Media's fault etc etc. Why were we THAT close to the wall?

You’re not the first person to suggest that the wire may have been flush with the wall and therefore difficult to trip over — and yes, I’ve even had one person ask if I’d been drinking at the time! That was particularly galling!

From my perspective, though, the wire was already looped and protruding enough to catch a foot. I was walking side by side with my partner, and we believe that because of the positioning of a nearby signpost, we naturally veered closer to the wall. Unfortunately, the cable was sticking out just enough at that spot to catch my foot as I walked. Perfect storm?

While it’s impossible to be absolutely certain of the exact mechanics of my trip, what I do know for sure is that I would not now have a broken wrist if those wires hadn’t been there.

I actually plucked up the courage yesterday to knock on the occupant’s door. She told me she wasn’t even aware of any Virgin Media cables, as she doesn’t use their services. In truth, she seemed quite vague and nervous, and I chose to end the conversation before raising anything further, such as insurance details.

My view is that if a household ends its contract, Virgin Media should take responsibility for either removing redundant wires, or at least carrying out some form of maintenance check, even if they wish to leave infrastructure in place for future tenants.

Ultimately, I reported the hazard to Virgin Media, they fixed it immediately, and they provided me with an email address to pursue a claim. 

And just to be clear, any suggestion that I am abusing the process is in poor taste. I appreciate the whole devil's advocate stance, as that would indeed be any legal team's attitude too, but this is a genuine injury, and I’m simply trying to find the right way forward.

TBH that was my first thought too.. the implication not being that you're abusing or making up anything. Rather that if the wire was fairly out of the way and not an apparent hazard, then the liability to have done anything beforehand is reduced. 

Also its good that Virgin fixed the problem promptly.. once they ARE aware of it, then they have a much greater liability plus its generally better to fix and avoid than argue about whether they should have to. However this ISN:T an indication of whether they had to before your fall. 

Nasqueron

Lupamonkey said:

Nasqueron said:

Purely as devil's advocate, that wiring would be difficult to hook your leg in given how close it is to the wall and piping, it would have only have been pulled out so far after it was pulled by your trip.

It's unfortunate you got injured but I don't see how this is somehow the fault of Virgin, the council or even the home owner.

I really appreciate your comments and completely take your point. I've even had all these discussions with my partner. How is it Virgin Media's fault etc etc. Why were we THAT close to the wall?

You’re not the first person to suggest that the wire may have been flush with the wall and therefore difficult to trip over — and yes, I’ve even had one person ask if I’d been drinking at the time! That was particularly galling!

From my perspective, though, the wire was already looped and protruding enough to catch a foot. I was walking side by side with my partner, and we believe that because of the positioning of a nearby signpost, we naturally veered closer to the wall (extra pic added to illustrate). Unfortunately, the cable was sticking out just enough at that spot to catch my foot as I walked. Perfect storm? 

While it’s impossible to be absolutely certain of the exact mechanics of my trip, what I do know for sure is that I would not now have a broken wrist if those wires hadn’t been there.

I actually plucked up the courage yesterday to knock on the occupant’s door. She told me she wasn’t even aware of any Virgin Media cables, as she doesn’t use their services. In truth, she seemed quite vague and nervous, and I chose to end the conversation before raising anything further, such as insurance details.

My view is that if a household ends its contract, Virgin Media should take responsibility for either removing redundant wires, or at least carrying out some form of maintenance check, even if they wish to leave infrastructure in place for future tenants.

Ultimately, I reported the hazard to Virgin Media, they fixed it immediately, and they provided me with an email address to pursue a claim. 

And just to be clear, any suggestion that I am abusing the process is in poor taste. I appreciate the whole devil's advocate stance, as that would indeed be any legal team's attitude too, but this is a genuine injury, and I’m simply trying to find the right way forward.

Ultimately the right way forward would be to accept you made a mistake and tripped and move on with it instead of spending time and money trying to make someone liable for a payout.

Virgin have an estimated 5.73m broadband customers (this is excluding the mobile market), it's simply not realistic for them to be expected to do a routine check on all their customers. Even if it was, what happens if the day after the check someone kicks in the box and the wire gets loose, are they supposed to check 5.73m connections every day just in case? Randomly knocking on the door and asking someone if they have a connection is always going to result in the owner assuming you're sales and wanting you to go away. As can be seen from the repair, if someone had reported it, they would have fixed it, as no-one did, nobody knew about it.

At no point was I suggesting you were abusing the process, rather I was pointing out it's possible for someone to pull the wire out and trip over it, equally we don't know how far out it was when you tripped, by doing so you pulled it out as your leg got caught so perhaps it now sticks out further and it was close to the wall behind the pipe before.

Life is too short for compo cases where no-one is at fault and it's just an unfortunate accident.

booneruk

Lupamonkey said:

This weekend my foot got caught in some Virgin media cable sticking out of someone's house while I was walking down the street. I went sprawling across the pavement and landed on my wrist. It hurt like hell!

This happened to me once while walking in the dark, I went splat but it must have been drunk luck or my youthful age that allowed me to avoid injury. I didn't complain, but I did think once I got home about walking back to the cables and cutting them with a pair of tree loppers.

I know this doesn't help, but get well soon!

[Incidentally, I also had a massive splat while running for a bus one day. Crossed a small road with traffic at a standstill only to find the cars I were running between were attached by a tow rope. What are the chances? That one DID hurt like hell and I'm carrying the scar on my knee]

Lupamonkey

Nasqueron said:

Ultimately the right way forward would be to accept you made a mistake and tripped 

. I think you've been helpful enough. Let's not waste any more of each other's time. 

Lupamonkey

booneruk said:

[Incidentally, I also had a massive splat while running for a bus one day. Crossed a small road with traffic at a standstill only to find the cars I were running between were attached by a tow rope. What are the chances? That one DID hurt like hell and I'm carrying the scar on my knee]

Wowch  .