A 22 year old university student was a front seat passenger in a car driven by his friend who lost control in icy conditions and collided with a stationery car.
He sustained a skull fracture and haemorrhaging (to the right basal ganglia and minimal mid line shift). He remained unconscious for over a week and suffered several weeks of post traumatic amnesia.
He appeared to make a good physical recovery but has been left with ongoing problems with recognition, memory, and speed of information processing. These make him significantly disadvantaged in terms of his career.
He is unlikely to achieve his pre accident potential as he is unable to cope with working at a professional level. He did manage to go on and re-take his last year and obtain a degree in multi media design but has not been able to find a job in that field. Instead, he has obtained a number of low level jobs all of which he has lost as a result of the consequences of his brain injury.
Expert reports were also obtained from care experts and an employment consultant to assess the impact of the claimant’s career.
The man was awarded £400,000 in compensation with the claimant accepting a 15% reduction in his damages for contributory negligence in failing to wear his seatbelt.
