Commuter Claims £7,500 After Station Platform Fall

After she fell into the gap between her usual train to work and the platform edge, we helped Tammy claim £7,500 in compensation.

On her commute to work, Tammy was attempting to board a train on a crowded station platform. That morning, her train had been rerouted from its usual platform to one usually used for freight trains. Because of this, the gap between the train and the edge of the platform was larger than usual.

Tammy was caught in a surge of passengers and unintentionally pushed forwards into the gap between the platform and the train.

Luckily, she was pulled up from the track and into the train by fellow passengers shortly before the train doors closed and the train departed. Immediately after the incident, Tammy was visibly shaken. She alighted the train at the following stop where she met her husband who took her to the local hospital.

As a result of the accident, Tammy suffered extensive bruising to her back, legs, shoulders, neck, bottom and left side. She also hit her head in the fall and suffered ongoing headaches.

Tammy visited her GP on numerous occasions after the incident because she was in significant pain and badly bruised. She also sustained a clot on her back in the fall which had to be surgically removed.

After the accident, Tammy was very cautious about getting on and off trains. Her injuries forced her to take 3 months off from her job as a cardiac physiologist. When she eventually returned to work, she was still in pain and was unable to work to her full capabilities. Eventually, she took early retirement.

Tammy relied on her husband and children to help out around the house and also relied on them for lifts to medical appointments. Before her accident, she had employed a cleaner to help with the housework, but because she couldn’t do as much herself as she used to, she had to increase the cleaner’s hours.

How we helped

Tammy contacted Jefferies shortly after the accident and Rebecca Shippam took on her claim. When we contacted Southern Rail who were responsible for the running of the station, they initially denied liability for the accident. However, Rebecca worked very hard to collect further evidence, including witness statements and expert medical reports which helped to strengthen Tammy’s claim.

In our investigations, we found that there had been several other incidents on the same station platform, in which passengers had fallen into the same gap while boarding or alighting trains. Because limitation was fast-approaching, we issued court proceedings and a case management conference took place in an attempt to settle the claim.

In May 2017, Southern Rail’s insurers made an offer to settle Tammy’s claim for £7,500 which she decided to accept. The settlement compensated her for both the effects of her injury and other expenses she had incurred as a result. These included travel expenses to medical appointments, the cost of replacing her glasses and mobile phone which were both damaged in the accident and prescription costs.

At the conclusion of the claim, Tammy was delighted with the result and left us the following testimonial:

“May I take this opportunity to thank you personally for all the hard work you undertook to bring this case to a closure. Your professionalism was exemplary. You were the only Claims Solicitors to take this case on against the big boys.”

Have you also been hurt at a train station?

If you’ve been injured in an accident in a train station, on a train or on another form of public transport, you might be able to claim. Call our personal injury experts on 0800 342 3206 or contact us online to start your claim today.