We can help you claim
compensation following an accident
illness or injury - nationwide
Call: 0800 10 757 95
Everyone is familiar with the phrase, "Tiredness kills" yet driver fatigue is still the main cause of coach accidents in the UK. One in five motorway accidents is caused by someone falling asleep at the wheel and if this involves a coach, the consequences can be especially horrific.
In 2009, EU regulations stated that a driver must take a 45 minute break for every four and a half hours of driving, and that a driver should do no more than 90 hours driving every fortnight.
However, despite these regulations, coach drivers are often under pressure to flout these rules and work overtime, putting themselves, their passengers and other road users at risk.
All coaches are fitted with a tachograph, which monitors how long a driver has been on the road or doing other work. Drivers have to record how long they spend behind the wheel on weekly charts which they are required by law to carry with them. However, these can be subject to tampering as drivers try and 'clock up' more hours than the EU regulations allow.
This can be a real problem as it is up to the drivers themselves to set their tachograph so catching those who have manipulated their driving hours can be difficult.
Speaking on the BBC's 'Inside Out' programme aired in 2004, a spokesperson for the Transport and General Worker's Union said: "If a driver puts the tachograph to rest when he's actually doing other work, nobody's ever going to know unless someone's there to catch him red-handed."
According to the BBC many professional coach companies put pressure on their drivers to meet unreasonable deadlines, such as driving all night without a break. This pressure is not only leading to unsociable working hours, but is also creating big road safety risk as well. Driving while tired can seriously affect your hazard perception as well as slowing your reaction times. Driving a coach full of passengers while tired is not only irresponsible, but highly dangerous as well.
A coach crash not only risks the lives of the coach driver and passengers, but also everyone else on the road as well. An accident involving a coach has the potential to result in a high number of seriously injured casualties as well as causing a 'domino effect' as other road users crash into each other trying to avoid the accident scene. On top of this, coach accidents also lead to severe delays as a crashed coach can blockade roads resulting in road closures and traffic disturbance.
YouClaim can help you claim after a coach accident
Being in a coach accident can be an extremely traumatic event especially if you were injured in the crash. As well as exceedingly painful, a personal injury resulting from a coach accident can also prevent you from being able to work and drive. At YouClaim, we believe that you should gain compensation for any suffering you've endured from an accident that wasn't your fault.
Every year we help hundreds of coach accident victims gain compensation for their injuries. Our panel of extremely competent personal injury solicitors have a wealth of experience in dealing with passenger injury claims and our fantastic claims success rate speaks for itself.
Free legal advice to help you decide if you want to make a claim
We offer free legal advice to all our customers so if you have any further questions about the no win no fee process or your rights after sustaining a passenger injury then give us a call on 0800 10 757 95 today.
Alternatively, you can request a call back or fill in an online claim form and we will give you a call back at a time convenient with you to discuss your coach accident.
