Crushed at Work – A Guide to Claiming Compensation

Some accidents at work are far more serious than others. For instance, if you are crushed by heavy machinery, equipment or workplace vehicles, your injuries could be life-changing or life-threatening. Crucially, if you are crushed at work because of your employer’s negligence, it may be possible to sue them for your suffering. In this guide to claiming compensation for being crushed at work, we will explore the types of incidents that could enable you to claim and what compensation for a crush injury at work you could receive.

If you or a loved one has been crushed in a work-related accident, we can help. Our team is here to review your claim as part of a free initial consultation. As well as providing legal advice about your next steps, they could connect you with one of our specialist accident-at-work solicitors. Importantly, they will represent you on a No Win, No Fee basis if your claim proceeds.

To find out if you’re entitled to make a crush injury claim, you can:

• Call our team on 0333 241 2519 to speak to a specialist.
• Contact us via our live chat service night or day.

Read on for more about how crush injury at work claims work but please contact us with any questions that arise along the way.

What Are Work-Related Crush Injuries?

Crush injuries occur when force or pressure is applied to a body part, causing damage to the underlying structures such as muscles, bones, tendons, blood vessels, and nerves and often happens when a part of the body is squeezed between two heavy objects.

Crush injuries can vary in severity from minor bruises and lacerations to more severe damage including fractures, deep tissue damage, nerve damage and in extreme cases, compartment syndrome (increased pressure in an enclosed muscle area, leading to muscle and nerve damage) or amputation.

Some crush injuries can lead to fatalities. Statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), show 12 workers died in 2022/23 after being trapped by collapsing or overturning objects.

If you or a loved one has suffered an injury after being crushed at work, call our legal advisors now to see if you could claim for your suffering.

Can I Claim Compensation for Being Crushed At Work?

All employers have a legal duty to keep staff as safe as possible while working due to the rules of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Some of the ways they can uphold that duty to stop employees from being crushed at work include:

• Ensure that adequate warning signs are in place to warn of any potential dangers.
• Conduct workplace risk assessments regularly.
• Make sure all equipment and machinery are safe and properly maintained.
• Provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to staff where needed.
• Train staff adequately on health and safety policies, manual handling training and the safe use of workplace equipment.

Failure to provide as safe a workplace as reasonably possible could enable you to claim for any subsequent crush injuries.

As such, if you’re to be compensated for work-related crush injuries, you must be able to demonstrate that:

• At the time of your accident, your employer owed you a duty of care.
• Your employer failed to uphold that duty and, as such, caused your accident.
• You were crushed at work during the accident and sustained an injury or injuries in the last three years.

If you were crushed at work and believe your employer is liable, you could have grounds to claim for your injuries.

What Types of Negligence Can Lead to Crush Injury Claims?

Here are several examples of accidents resulting from employer negligence that may lead to a crush injury claim, with which we can assist:

• Where your leg was crushed because a recycling machine activated while you were clearing a hopper in a factory and you’d not been trained on how to do so safely.
• If your fingers were crushed by a pressing machine because its safety rail had been removed for some time and your employer had failed to replace it.
• Where poorly fitted racking in a warehouse collapsed onto you and you were trapped by the stock it was holding. This led to multiple fractures and internal organ damage.
• If both of your legs were amputated after you were crushed at work in a vehicle accident on a construction site because it was being reversed without a banksman.

As well as some of the serious injuries listed here, some crush injuries can be fatal. If you’ve lost a loved one who was crushed to death at work, you could have grounds to claim compensation for your loss. As well as claiming for their pain and suffering, you might receive compensation to cover your reliance on their earnings, funeral expenses and other costs. If you’ve lost a loved one in a fatal accident at work and would like us to help, please feel free to call at any time.

What Should I Do If I’ve Been Crushed at Work?

If you’ve experienced a crushing injury at work, you should:

• Immediately seek medical attention, either from a first aider at your workplace or by visiting a hospital or your GP.
• Report the incident to your employer as soon as possible, ensuring it’s officially recorded in the accident book.
• Consider requesting an assessment of your workplace from an occupational health professional, if available, to prevent future incidents.

Taking these steps can help safeguard your rights after an accident at work. If improvements to workplace safety are not made following your report, and you’re diagnosed with injuries directly resulting from the crush incident, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries and any related losses.

What Evidence Can Be Used for Crush Injury Claims?

Even if you believe liability for your crush injury claim is easily proven, it is likely to be contested by your employer’s insurers if there isn’t enough evidence to prove your case. Therefore, if you’ve been crushed at work and want to claim compensation, you could provide the following evidence:

• Video footage of the accident if your workplace uses security cameras.
• Accident report forms and HSE investigation reports if they reviewed what happened.
• Accident scene photographs.
• Copies of any medical records, scan results or X-rays that confirm your injuries.
• Details of anybody who saw what happened (in case witness statements are needed).
• Photographs of your injuries throughout your recovery.

If one of our work injury solicitors represents you, they will normally offer to help you find any evidence you’ve not already secured as part of their service.

How Long Do I Have To Claim Crush Injury Compensation?

As you may be aware, there is a 3-year time limit for accident-at-work claims. This time limit is defined in the Limitation Act 1980. In most cases, the time limit will begin on the date you were crushed at work.

If you’ve lost a loved one following a serious accident at work, you will also have a 3-year time limit. This will usually begin on the date of their death or the date you found out about it.

To confirm how long you have to claim for work-related crush injuries, please feel free to contact our team today.

How Much Compensation for Being Crushed at Work?

If you successfully claim compensation for being crushed at work, the amount awarded will depend a lot on the severity of your injuries. For instance, if you have suffered broken fingers that have now fully recovered, you’d typically receive a lesser amount than someone whose hand was amputated after it was crushed.

The first element of any compensation you receive is called general damages. It covers any pain, suffering and loss of amenity caused by your injuries. To help them put a value on your crush injuries, your solicitor will arrange for an independent medical assessment. In the meeting, a medical expert will discuss how you’ve been affected by your injuries and examine them.

The report that follows will list all of your injuries. Your solicitor may compare your injuries to past cases and with those contained in the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This document lists injuries alongside potential compensation brackets.

In addition, any crush injury compensation you receive could include special damages to cover any expenses linked to your injuries such as:

• Medical and rehabilitation costs.
• Lost earnings and any future reduction of earnings.
• Travel costs.
• Home adaptation costs if they’ll improve your quality of life.
• The cost of care and support at home.

Please call our team today to find out how much compensation you could receive after being crushed at work.

Can I Claim Compensation for Being Crushed at Work if I’m Not Employed Full-Time?

We mentioned the duty of care employers have with regard to the health and safety of their staff earlier. Crucially, this duty covers all workers, not just full-time workers.

Therefore, if you are injured after being crushed at work, you could seek damages as a contractor, agency worker, zero-hours worker, consultant or even if you’re self-employed. So long as you can show that your crush injuries were sustained in an accident caused by your employer’s negligence, you could have grounds to claim.

Will I Need a Solicitor to Make a Crush Injury Compensation Claim?

Legally, you have the option to begin a crush injury compensation claim without a legal representative. However, securing compensation for such serious injuries can be a complex task involving a lot of technical medical and legal evidence. The process should be somewhat easier if you take on a specialist solicitor and they could improve your chances of being awarded the correct level of compensation.

If you work with one of our solicitors, some of the services they might provide include:

• Collection of evidence to help prove your case.
• Sending your claim to your employer and their insurer on time.
• Handling all communications for you so that you won’t have to answer any questions directly.
• Negotiating and trying to deal with any objections regarding liability raised by your employer’s insurer.
• Aiming to secure the highest possible level of compensation for you.

Importantly, if your claim is accepted, it will be processed on a No Win, No Fee basis from start to finish.

To offer this service, our solicitors use a contract called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). When using a CFA to claim, you’ll know that:

• No fees for your solicitor’s work are payable upfront.
• If your claim fails, you don’t pay your solicitor for their time.
• A success fee will be deducted from any compensation you are awarded.

So that you keep the bulk of any settlement you receive, the maximum success fee allowed when using a CFA is 25 per cent.

To see if you could make a No Win, No Fee claim after being crushed at work, please call today.

Do Crush Injury Claims to Go to Court?

In our experience, most accident at work claims are dealt with out of court to avoid the associated time and costs. Therefore, solicitors and insurance companies will normally reach an amicable settlement which means you won’t need to go to court.

However, in some instances, your solicitor might arrange a court hearing if:

• They believe strongly that your claim is winnable; but
• Your employer has denied liability for your injuries; or
• They have offered a settlement that is believed to be too low.

While it is unusual for a court hearing to be needed, if your case goes to court, your solicitor will be there to support you throughout.

Contacting Us About a Crush Injury Claim

We are here to help if you’re thinking about claiming compensation for work-related crush injuries. To contact our team, you can:

• Call our legal advisors on 0333 241 2519.
• Connect to our live chat service 24 hours a day.

While there’s no obligation to proceed, any crush injury claims accepted by our specialist solicitors are handled on a No Win, No Fee basis.