Would you sue if you were hit by a digger

[Groovychic]

My friend was recently walking along a pavement. There was boarded section to the left parallel to a tree. The digger was on the road next to the tree, my friend walked inbetween the tree and the boarded off bit. The digger operator didn't see my colleague coming and the digger hit my colleague in the head. The digger operator called an ambulance as blood was coming from his head. Luckily the wound didn't need stitches just glueing. My friend is left with a scar just above forehead. What would you do?

Well, a few years ago, I was on a bus, and the driver braked very suddenly. I was thrown against the front of the bus, and could hardly walk off it (had a baby and 2 toddlers as well!).
I was in pain for a couple of weeks, then booked an osteopath appointment. Fortunately, one appointment had me skipping around pain free again. Total cost to me was about 60 pounds.

The bus driver was a young girl, who was obviously terrified that I would complain, and she would lose her job. When I saw her again some weeks later, she asked how I was, and I said Fine, don't worry!

I didn't sue, because there were no lasting effects, and I just thought, ok that's life.
I just didn't feel angry enough to sue.

More recently, I had a very expensive dental operation, that went completely wrong. Afterwards, I discovered that this dentist has a history of incompetence, and of being sued. Now, in this case, I am suing to get my money back, because it cost around 2000 euros, and I had to get it done again, for a similar cost, and also I had 3 weeks of excruciating pain (24 hour Ibuprofen for 3 weeks is no joke).

Hope these 2 stories might help him make up his mind.

I have no idea at all about personal injury claims, but does there have to be some kind of actual loss incurred? Like in nighbynight's cases?

I can't quite visualise what happened in this particular case, but in general it would depend on the scar. Given that I am so preternaturally gorgeous (no sniggering at the back there) if it were permanently disfiguring I might sue (but if this scar is concealed by hair, then probably not). I would potentially report incident to HSE, though (depending on what actually happened) in an attempt to prevent similar-but-more-serious accident happening to someone else later.

It sounds like there was loss in this case (the scar).

Was the friend walking in an area they werent meant to be in? (I couldnt work it out from the OP).

If I was in this situation and I felt that it was due to carelessness on the part of the digger driver rather than myself I probably would consider legal action, though not sure if the level of compensation that I would be likely to get for a scar would make it worthwhile (would probably depend on how disfiguring the scar was).

I agree with PortandLemon - if the accident could have been prevented by the digger driver then I would report it to HSE to make sure both the driver and the employers take action to prevent this happening again - it could have been a child...

All accidents of this nature should be reported to HSE. Investigated, reported on, and measures put in place so this wouldn't happen again.

Actually, I'd be suprised if the digger driver hadn't reported the incident to his company at the time.

Thanks for all the replies.

My colleague doesn't want to take any action but I have contacted the company mainly to see if the incident was reported. They said it was logged but case was closed cos they didn't have contact details. Why didn't the driver ask my colleague for his details before sending off in ambulance . The site manager will look into this case again and make contact shortly.

In my op I forgot to mention that there was suppose to be another worker on the ground while the driver was digging but he was no where to be seen until the accident happened. The area was not cordened off so anyone could have walked inbetween.