-and- WITNESS STATEMENT OF JOHN HENRY RHODE-CLAIMS. I, John Henry Rhode-Claims of 25 Whiplash Crescent, Crashtown, Wreckageshire, WC0 0KK will

Transcription

1 1. Statement on behalf of: Claimant 2. Statement made by: John Henry Rhode-Claims 3. No of Statement: First 4. Exhibits: 5. Date: 11 th July 2011 IN THE NO CLAIMS COUNTY COURT Claim No: NT3078P BETWEEN JOHN HENRY RHODE-CLAIMS -and- Claimant JOHN JONES Defendant WITNESS STATEMENT OF JOHN HENRY RHODE-CLAIMS I, John Henry Rhode-Claims of 25 Whiplash Crescent, Crashtown, Wreckageshire, WC0 0KK will state as follows: 1. I am 58 years of age having been born on the 25 th February 1953 and I am a self employed builder. 2. I make this statement from my own knowledge in relation to a road traffic accident that I was involved in on 12 th April I have held a full driving licence since I feel it is appropriate to inform the court that I have not been involved in any other injury traffic accidents. 5. At the time of the accident I was driving a Ford Escort van, registration number AA00 AAA. I had owned the vehicle for approximately 2 years prior to the accident and I was familiar with its controls and layout. 6. The vehicle was insured, fully comprehensively, by Full Claims Insurance, the policy excess was 250. I use the vehicle for business purposes and my wife, June, is a named driver on the policy. 7. My vehicle is not fitted with ABS braking or any other advance device to assist with braking. 8. My vehicle had no mechanical defects that I was aware of at the time of the accident. 9. There were no passengers in the vehicle at the time of the accident. 10. I was wearing my seat belt at the time of the accident and the head restraints fitted to the seats of my vehicle were correctly adjusted. 11. I do not have to wear glasses when driving my vehicle.

2 Continued Statement of John Henry Rhode-Claims Page I do not suffer from any illness or medical condition that affects my driving ability or my eye sight and I also have good hearing. 13. At the time of the accident I had not been drinking and I was not taking any medication or any other substance that would have affected my driving ability. 14. At approximately 16:00 hours on Monday 12 th April 2007 I was driving my vehicle home along Arundel Road, Southport, Merseyside after shopping at Tesco on the High Street. I had reached the junction with Liverpool Road when I was involved in a collision with a Rover 214, registration number BB00 BBB which was being driven by the Defendant. 15. I was not in a rush as I had finished work early and had been to the store to get something for my tea and some dog food. 16. I am familiar with the accident location because I drive along the road regularly both during the course of my employment and socially. 17. Arundel Road is a single carriageway road in a residential area which is subject to a speed limit of 30mph. There is one lane in each direction and the lanes are divided by broken centre white lines. The junction with Liverpool Road is a cross road type junction which is controlled by traffic lights. 18. There were no road works in the area of my accident and there were no other contributory factors involved in my accident. 19. It was a dry, clear day. It was daylight and visibility was good. There are street lamps in the area but these were not lit. The road surface was dry and in a good state of repair. 20. My vehicle lights were not illuminated at the time of the accident. 21. Traffic at the time of the accident was light. There were one or two vehicles behind my vehicle but there was only light traffic approaching my vehicle from the opposite direction. 22. I had driven from the Town Centre and had made my way to the B4214 Waterloo Road. I then made my way north heading towards Ainsdale travelling at approximately 25 to 30 mph. 23. I turned left from Waterloo Road onto Arundel Road and drove towards the junction with Liverpool Road. My intention was to drive straight across the junction into Halsall Road and at the end of Halsall Road turn right onto Guildford Road. 24. As I am familiar with the road I knew I was approaching a traffic light controlled cross road junction. I could see ahead me the traffic lights at the junction had been on green in my favour for some time so I slowed my vehicle down by use of the brakes to approximately 20 to 25 mph in anticipation of the traffic lights changing to red.

3 Continued Statement of John Henry Rhode-Claims Page As I neared the junction the traffic lights changed to red against me so I brought my vehicle to a stop at the stop line. I applied the vehicle s handbrake and placed the vehicle into neutral. 26. As I waited for the traffic lights to change I was fully aware of what was going on around me, I clearly remember a number of vehicles on Liverpool Road driving past the front of my vehicle. 27. As the traffic lights changed to red and amber I prepared to set off by selecting first gear and releasing my vehicle s handbrake. 28. All the traffic on Liverpool Road appeared to have stopped and the junction was clear of traffic. 29. My traffic lights changed to green and I accelerated and drove forward heading towards Halsall Road. 30. I was just starting to cross Liverpool Road and would have been travelling at no more than mph when I caught a flash of something out of the corner of my right eye. 31. The next thing that happened was there was a very loud bang at the front right hand corner of my vehicle and it shook violently as it was shunted violently to the left. 32. The force of the impact threw me violently around in my seat before being restrained by my seat belt. I did not collide with anything inside the vehicle. 33. I realised another vehicle had collided with mine and braked immediately. I had not had any warning of the impact and there had been no time to take evasive action. 34. As a result of the impact a can of dog food came hurtling through from the back seat of the vehicle and broke the front windscreen. A can of WD 40 in the front of the vehicle exploded and covered my face in oil, I thought I had gone blind. 35. Immediately after the impact I was confused and shaken, I was panicking as I could not see. I stayed in my vehicle for a few minutes trying to compose myself and once I realised why I could not see I wiped my face with a rag that I had in the van, I could feel no immediate injuries. 36. Whilst I was still sat in my vehicle the Landlord of the nearby pub came over to me and asked if I was OK, I think he contacted the emergency services. 37. I got out of my vehicle and saw the force of the impact had pushed my vehicle up tight to the left hand kerb of Halsall Road narrowly missing the pedestrian railings at the side of the road. The other vehicle ended up broadside across the road with the front pointing towards my vehicle. The road was partially blocked by the Defendant s vehicle. 38. I was aware of two people who I believe were travelling in a vehicle behind mine who were doing traffic control. I do not know these persons details or if they witnessed the accident.

4 Continued Statement of John Henry Rhode-Claims Page I then saw that the Defendant had also got out of his vehicle and was standing at the side of the road, we didn t speak with each other and I did not see anyone else inside the Defendant s vehicle. 40. Whilst I waited for the emergency services I just wandered around, I do recall saying something to the Defendant at this stage but he did not reply. 41. At this point the daughter of the Defendant, who lived locally, turned up at the accident scene. I do not believe she was travelling with the Defendant. 42. The emergency services now arrived at the accident scene and took control. The fire brigade made the vehicles safe by cutting the battery leads. The paramedics examined both myself and the Defendant. The police and fire brigade moved both vehicles to the nearby pub car park. 43. I told the paramedics that I was shaken up and that my neck and shoulders had started to stiffen up and they suggested I went with them to hospital. I did not want to do this so I declined their offer. 44. I could see no apparent injuries to the Defendant and he did not go to hospital. 45. I was breathalysed by the police at the scene of my accident and the test result was negative. I produced my driving documents to the police at the scene of my accident and they were checked on the computer fitted to their vehicle and they were found to be correct 46. PC Clearup from Southport Police Station is the officer dealing with the accident. The police accident reference number is 13456/07. I have not heard what, if any, action the police are taking over my accident. 47. I remember the police officer checking the traffic lights to see if they were working correctly, after carrying out his checks he confirmed to both myself and the Defendant that the traffic lights were working correctly. 48. When I looked at my vehicle I could saw that my vehicle had extensive damage to the front driver s corner, the headlamp was smashed and the bumper was hanging loose on the driver s side. The front driver s side wing and the driver s door had been badly deformed and dented. The damage was so bad my insurance company had to write my vehicle off. 49. The Defendant s vehicle had extensive front end damage, the front of the vehicle was pushed back, the bonnet of the vehicle was crumpled and the front lights were smashed. The vehicle also appeared to be losing some sort of fluid from the front I could see this dripping onto the road. 50. Two witnesses to the accident came over to me at the scene of the accident. One was driving the vehicle directly behind mine and her name is Sharon Smith, I do not know her personally but I

5 Continued Statement of John Henry Rhode-Claims Page 5 know her brother. I can get her name and address if required. The second witness was in the second vehicle behind mine and his name is Jeremy Crowshaw and he is a personal friend and my solicitor, I can supply his address if required. Both these witnesses told me that they believed the Defendant was at fault for the accident and would support my case. 51. If this case proceeds to court I would be willing to attend to defend this matter. 52. I believe the Defendant is responsible for the accident because I was driving carefully and the traffic lights for my direction of travel were definitely on green which means the Defendant had to have driven through a red light. STATEMENT OF TRUTH I believe the facts stated in this witness statement to be true. Date: 11 th July 2011 Signed:.. John Henry Rhode-Claims