Petrol pump burn injury victim wins compensation
A court has ruled that a driver, who was burned when liquid petroleum gas leaked onto his hands, should win his compensation claim, it has been revealed.
The 68-year-old motorist was filling his tank up at a fuel station, when he received his personal injury. He has been awarded £17,000 in accident claim damages, after a legal battle.
It was at a pump in his home town of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, when he sustained the ‘cold burns’, which are like frostbite injuries.
The station, which is owned by a popular supermarket franchise, denied public liability and challenged the original ruling at Cardiff County Court. But the Civil Appeal Court in London upheld the ruling and payout.
In March last year, a judge at Cardiff County Court upheld the victim’s £17,000 damages claim against the company but rejected his case against the manufacturers of the liquid petroleum gas (LPG) pump nozzle.
Due to the incident which happened in October 2004, he required skin grafts and had to take time off work for several months.
The judge found the supermarket chain to be guilty in failing to ensure the nozzle was in good working order. He also referred back to two similar accidents which had occurred at the same petrol station.
One of those accidents happened in February 2005 - when a female motorist was filling up from a pump at a station and LPG ran over both her hands. As a result, she suffered from liquid vapour cold burns to both hands.
The supermarket chain disputed the county court ruling, claiming it went against the weight of the evidence. But Lord Justice Dyson dismissed the company's appeal.
The judge, sitting with Lord Justice Thorpe and Lady Justice Arden, said the latest injury claimant was trying to fill his Land Rover with LPG when vapour began escaping. When he tried to release the nozzle from his car, the liquid gas squirted over his right arm and hand, causing injuries similar to frostbite.
The substance's transition from liquid to gas at outside temperatures occurs so rapidly that its temperature drops to a point where it causes cold burn injuries to human flesh.
Lord Justice Dyson said the county court judge was entitled to find that the accident was caused by a “mechanical defect” in the nozzle, although the exact cause remained undecided.
He concluded that there was no convincing evidence that the accident was caused by a defect in the customer’s own vehicle.
Safety system invented at the pumps
In similar news it has been revealed that petrol stations in Dubai will soon be installed with electronic instruments to check fuel levels, to help encourage health and safety.
Petrol stations have been asked to install electronic devices to check fuel levels in reservoirs as part of new risk assessments to protect drivers. In addition, a further 70 stations will be subjected to regular inspections.
One HSE officer said: “During investigations, we found certain safety instructions had been ignored. One was the lack of a safety aspect of the storage tank compartment.
“An international consultancy is studying the conditions of petrol filling stations in the country. Reaching the target of June is important for us,” he said.
Updated on 04/02/2010