The huge difficulties victims of negligence face securing compensation after suffering life-changing injuries are in the national news this week.
APIL executive committee member Victoria Lebrec was the focus of a feature in The Guardian, where she speaks about the challenges she faced after having to have her leg amputated due to her injuries.
She almost died after being run over by a skip lorry while cycling to work in London. The truck driver went on to plead guilty to careless driving in court.
The article mentions Victoria’s links to APIL and that she now campaigns on road safety.
She tells The Guardian: “Obviously, it wasn’t my fault, because the driver was found guilty, but the insurance companies will literally do anything to victim-blame.
“They were saying things like: I should have known better than to be next to the lorry; and why wasn’t I wearing hi-vis at 9am on a Monday morning? Neither of these things are requirements, by the way.”
Victoria says in the piece that the driver’s company’s insurer hired a medical expert to argue she did not need such an advanced £70,000 prosthetic and that a cheaper, less sensitive leg, would be better. She even had to try the inferior leg for six weeks to prove it was totally unsuitable for her.
