Holiday accidents and injuries
Suffering an accident or injury on your holiday can be very distressing. If you are unlucky enough to suffer an injury when you should be enjoying your holiday, there is a chance for you to claim your deserved injury compensation.
Making a holiday accident claim can sometimes be a long and difficult process. First of all, if you make a compensation claim abroad this is usually subject to the law of the country where the injury occurred. This affects your right to compensation and the value of your holiday accident claim. In some cases you may be able to recover compensation for both your accident and, where appropriate, the fact that your time was ruined.
It is easier to make a compensation claim if your injury abroad happened on a holiday that was part of package tour. This is because package tour operators have to respect the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tour Regulations 1992.
Holiday tour operators, hotel staff and all other staff connected with the package holiday have a duty to provide you with a good quality and safe service.
Holiday accidents range from accidents occurred in a hotel to accidents on boats, planes or by doing various sport activities.
The main causes of holiday accidents or illnesses are the following:
- Wet floor or misplaced object
- Injury on foreign transport vehicle
- Food poisoning from the hotel restaurant
- Illness because bad hotel hygiene
- Problems with rental car that lead to a holiday accident
- Water or winter sports accidents
The time limits in which a claim can vary throughout the world, thus it is very important to contact a solicitor and seek advice as soon as possible.
If you happen to have an accident abroad it is advisable to get as much information at the time as you can. Our recommendation is to take photos of what caused the accident, writing down or sketching the scene, and taking note of the names and numbers of witnesses – as well as any injuries which have been sustained. It’s best to gather this information straight away, as it would be hard to do this at a later time.
In recent years, there have been recent changes in UK and European legislation which have made claiming holiday accident or injury compensation much easier. If your claim is successful, you will be awarded financial compensation which will depend on the individual circumstances of your case – like the extent of your injury and financial losses you have sustained because of the injury.
If you’ve suffered an accident whilst being on holiday abroad, it is imperative that you get the compensation you are entitled to. Don’t hesitate and contact your injury lawyers now!
