After an evening's high jinks of drinking and clubbing and generally doing what young people do when they let their hair down, a gang of young men re-grouped to make the trip home and found that there simply wasn't enough room in the car. To this end, one of them decided he would be better off to make the short journey home in the boot of the car, to his everlasting detriment.



The group of boys had become separated during the evening and all declared they had no way of knowing how much the designated driver had consumed in the way of alcoholic drinks. When asked if he was in a fit state to drive, the driver assured all passengers that he was.

Unfortunately, the evening ended tragically when a collision occurred and the young man in the boot of the car was severely injured, resulting in tetraplegia. He suffered broken arms, leg, collar bone and ribs and sustained a serious head injury but the main problem was a dual brachial plexus injury. This is what has left him with no use of his hands and extremely limited use of his arms. Obviously, this has affected all of his life and will continue to do so.

As pointed out by the personal injury lawyer, the driver was found to be under the influence of alcohol and was convicted of dangerous driving. However, the injured party also has to accept a degree of responsibility for voluntarily travelling in the boot of a car and so his compensation was reduced by a third to account for this fact. This is a dreadful way to pay for alcohol fuelled misjudgement and should serve as a lesson to other young people about arranging homeward bound transport before setting out for the evening.

Following another vehicle accident, injury lawyers are acting on behalf of another man who has been left tetraplegic after his girlfriend lost control of her Jeep. The difference with this case is that the British man had his accident on foreign soil. The crash occurred in Australia and under the laws of New South Wales, compensation is paid at a lesser amount.

However, this man faces a life time of having to pay for twenty four hour care and needs as much as he can get. That said, injury lawyers have secured him the right to fight for compensation through British courts and this opens up the possibility of damages reaching well over 5 pounds million.

Tetraplegia occurs when an injury either severs or severely damages the spinal cord in the neck region. There are different degrees of injury and this will affect how much movement is lost or re-gained and the overall impact on the quality of life that follows. There are seven vertebrae in the neck and the higher the damage, the more likely that total movement will be lost.

Complete severing of the spinal cord can also mean that breathing can be difficult as well as bowel and bladder control as well as losing sexual function. Sometimes, if the injury is low in the neck, then movement is possible in the lower limbs but not in the arms. It is possible to also have an incomplete injury where the spinal cord is not completely severed but damaged to the point where movement in the limbs is limited to the point of making normal life impossible.

The spinal cord and the injuries that can occur are very complex matters and this is why any compensation claims need to be pursued by a specialist injury lawyer who understands all the implications.