Case Law
Elderly drivers should have cognitive tests after the age of 80, Scottish court states
In Irvine (Fatal Accident Inquiry) [2024], the sheriff recommended that the driving license renewal process for drivers aged 80 or older be changed so that the applicant was required to take a short initial cognitive assessment. The current application form for renewal of a driving license should be changed as a matter of priority, to include further questions which elicited information about recent driving history. Judgment link here.
Driving of quad bike on public road leads to assessment of contributory negligence
In Owens v Lewis [2024] EWHC, D, aged 15, drove a quad bike at 30mph on a public road carrying C, a 16 year old passenger, two other passengers and three dogs. C brought a claim, D was convicted of dangerous driving but D sought a finding of contributory negligence, 65% proposed for agreeing to be carried and not wearing a helmet. C said that any deduction should be no more than 20%. As C had not made 'three bad decisions', contribution was assessed at 30%. Judgment link here.
Motorcycle competitor in test track collision successfully sues track owner for failing to erect the correct barriers to ensure safety
In Byrne v Motorsport Vision Racing [2024] EWHC, the Claimant was a well-known motorcycle rider. At the third turn of the test track, he came off his bike as he approached a safety barrier. He rolled across the grass and then hit the safety barrier where he felt excruciating pain and was badly injured. He argued that the safety barrier was the wrong type: Type D (for use with cars) rather than Type A (to cushion bike riders). D argued that C had accepted the risk and could not prove his injury was caused by collision with the barrier. The Court did not accept this and gave Judgment for C, which is here.
Cyclist fails to demonstrate that raised kerb was the cause of his accident
In Robertson v Cornwall Council [2024] EWHC, C was riding his bike alongside his wife. The road progressed to a cycle way. The surfaces were not flush and C fell from his bike, sustaining traumatic amnesia. The cycle way stood proud of the road surface and D agreed the need to undertake work to do this but had not done so. However, the Court was not satisfied that the fall was caused by the raised kerb and the claim was dismissed – measurements had not been taken, which did not help. Judgment link here.
More kerbs – motorcyclist claim fails with neither breach nor causation proven
In Braithwaite v Lewisham LBC [2025] EWHC, The court upheld the dismissal of a personal injury claim brought by a motorcyclist in relation to a road traffic accident allegedly caused by an extended area of kerb, or "build-out", controlling entry into a side road. The judge had not erred in finding that neither breach or duty nor causation was made out. Mr Justice Cotter stated: 'The first and obvious flaw in this argument is that the reason that the Appellant only became aware of the build out at the last instance is because of his own blameworthy conduct in proceeding at a significantly excessive (and illegal) speed and not paying sufficient attention to the road ahead/his environment'. Judgment link is here.
Stolen motorbike – test for knowledge of theft comes down in favour of injured Claimant.
In Dormer v Wilson [2025] EWHC, a 15-year-old who had been seriously injured as a pillion passenger on a stolen motorcycle did not have actual or "blind-eye knowledge" that the motorcycle was stolen. As he was unaware of the motorcycle's provenance, the driver's liability to him was not an "excluded liability" under the Road Traffic Act 1988 Pt VI s.151(4) and thus, the insurer of the motorcycle was liable in damages for his injuries. Link to the Judgment is here.
Bus and Coach news
Transport for London statistics showed that deaths from bus collisions in the capital in 2024 rose 16% on 2023. Provisional data showed 130 deaths, including 66 pedestrians, 10 cyclists, 18 motorcyclists, 27 car occupants, three bus occupants, five HGV occupants and one e-scooter rider.
Transport use
The latest statistics from the government have actually shown a slight drop in road transport, weekday usage in this publishing period has been between 87% to 98% of the pre-COVID-19 baseline, in comparison to 69% to 102% in the last period. Bus transport across the UK is still well below the January 2020 totals, at 84%. Figures are not available for London tube or bus, due to a cyber-incident in September 2024. Rail usage nationally was at around 82%, another drop on the previous year. The statistics can be viewed here.
Franchising
Franchising models have continued to expand across the UK, with Manchester's bus fleet re-regulation completed on the 5th January 2025. Meanwhile in Liverpool, franchising will begin in 2026 with the aim that the region will be fully franchised by the end of 2028. You can read about it here. Other areas such as the West Midlands and Cambridgeshire, are expected to follow suit shortly.
Meanwhile, Britain's bus market is booming, with a 16 year high on sales according to the SMMT. Demand has increased across multiple sectors, the strongest being minibuses and double deckers. The UK remains Europe's biggest zero emission bus market with deliveries up by more than a third in 2024.
You can read all about it here.
Automated Vehicles
As reported in the previous edition, the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2024 (AEVA) was passed into law in July 2024. Little seems to have happened since, however, and we await the secondary legislation necessary to bring the act to life and put AV's on our roads. This does now seem to be moving forward, as the Automated Vehicles Act implementation programme appears to be live – see here.
The aim was for automated vehicles on our roads by 2026 but yet again this seems to be getting away from the government. The transport committee met at the end of February but the meeting on the 26th focuses on buses connecting communities with no mention of AV's. Even the aforementioned implementation programme mentions 2027 as a start date, not 2026.
Meanwhile, in January 2025 the Global Automotive Consumer Study by Deloitte results were announced including attitudes to Automated Vehicles across nations. The UK displays a continued skepticism regarding the benefits of AI in cars with only 26% in the UK finding them so (matching Germany) with India (82%) and China (77%) far more accepting of new technology.
In terms of Automated vehicle use itself, 52% of UK residents are 'concerned' about self-driving vehicles compared to 36% in Germany. 67% of the UK public are concerned about automated trucks and lorries on the motorway. Clearly, a lot of work needs to be done to raise confidence levels as take up will be low unless confidence can be raised significantly. The full survey can be accessed here.
In very recent news, it would also appear that the UK government (and EU) is blocking Tesla from progressing with full (hands off the wheel) automation on UK roads for the foreseeable future, see article in Road and Track here.
Current Vehicle/driving issues:
Meanwhile, a survey by the RAC has shown that there is an ongoing issue with driver's headlights, with a quarter affected driving less at night as a result. The RAC go on to say ' Looking at motorists who still drive at night, nearly a fifth (17%) say bright headlights leave them feeling tired and fatigued while driving, while 16% say they’ve suffered with headaches, migraines and/or eye pain. Meanwhile, six-in-10 (59%) say dazzle makes driving more difficult and uncomfortable, a figure that rises to 65% for 65 to 74-year-olds and 67% for those aged 75 and over'. You can read more here.
E-Scooter/E-bike
Once again, despite some hints from the Department for Transport that it was back on their agenda (prior to Louise Haigh resigning), it seems e-scooters are not a priority for government and legislation seems far off, despite numerous complaints from the public.
Elsewhere, although seemingly dating back to summer 2024, the government published their Technical research into construction standards for e-scooters on the 29th January 2025 – it can be accessed here. Quite controversially, the report comments on the benefits for using scooters on the pavement for those with mobility impairments – this goes against previous advice and also the law on cycling on footpaths. They do caveat that any e-scooters should be limited to 4mph on the pavement but we feel any such use will muddy the waters and endanger pedestrians.
The UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Self-Driving met at the end of January, chaired by Chris Curtis, the Labour MP for Milton Keynes with representatives from the MIB, PACTS, Motability and industry experts from the likes of Oxa and Wayve, at the forefront of autonomous developments. DWF also attended the meeting. Obviously there was discussion around automated vehicles and what comes next – including whether to reverse the burden of proof so that AV's were liable for the accident unless proved otherwise. Again, the issue of uninsured AV's arose and the fact that it wasn't dealt with in the Act - the MIB are discussing with the DfT.
A private members bill has been introduced in this area but is in its infancy, having been introduced to the House of Lords on December 17th 2024. It is described as follows on the Parliament website:
A bill to amend the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 to create criminal offences relating to dangerous, careless or inconsiderate cycling and cycling without compulsory insurance, in particular applying to pedal cycles, electrically assisted pedal cycles and electric scooters; to publish an annual report on cycling offences; and to require a review of the impact of the dangerous use of electric scooters on other road users.
A link to the Road Traffic Offences (Cycling) Bill is here. The other private members bill that was launched in 2024 involving e-scooters is more to do with awareness but has stalled at 2nd reading in the House of Commons (where it started).
Finally there is the Harry Parker private members bill, also at a very early stage, which seeks to make unlicensed and uninsured driving less attractive, by making any case involving a fatality with such as driver an instant charge of careless or reckless driving. The bill can be accessed here. Bear in mind that only around 5% of private members bills become law – but they do raise awareness and can lead to government action.
Continuing with e-scooters, they have been blamed for an increase in the number of children being penalised for driving/riding without insurance, as reported by the Guardian. Since the start of 2020, nearly 800 children have been given an IN10 endorsement.
There remains no key case on contributory negligence, illegality and e-scooters, meaning that legislation cannot come soon enough.
Turning to e-bikes, most are banned from the London transport network from 31st March 2025 due to safety concerns over ignited batteries, as reported by the BBC here.
Automated Bus News
In Cambridge, Stagecoach have exited a driverless bus trial and the trail is seeking a new operator. The Innovate UK funded scheme will see four driverless vehicles tested in Cambridge. Stagecoach has also announced that the CAVForth driverless service would be withdrawn at the end of the trial, 14th February 2025, due to low usage, which is a concern. You can read about it here.
A GCP spokesperson says: “Stagecoach Group has confirmed to us that it is refocusing fully on delivering core bus services across the UK and scaling back its involvement in autonomous deployments after March.
Legislation/Rule Changes
CPR changes
The next update to the Civil Procedure Rules will take effect on the 6th April 2025. The main change for many practitioners and the most impactful for insurers will be the change to the pricing of fixed cost medical reports. The new figures will apply for all CNF's, SCNF's and letters of claim on or after 6th April. We suspect many new claims over the next 6 weeks will be sat on to achieve the new pricing levels. Figures below are net of VAT.
A number of other changes are also taking place with new costs budgeting forms and changes to some pre-action protocols.
In addition to the cost of medical reports, some other reporting aspects have changed in the low value process. You can read more about this from our Nigel Teasdale, here.
Whiplash Reforms updates
Sticking with low value claims, it was announced a few weeks ago that the inflationary increase in the whiplash tariff will take effect for accidents that occur on or after the 31st May 2025, with damages increasing by 15%. Whilst the Whiplash Injury (Amendment) Regulations 2025 need to be approved by both houses, this is basically a formality. The new figures are as follows:
DWF prepared a briefing note on the tariff increase written by Joanne Baker, which can be accessed here.
Insurers have also confirmed the level of savings brought from the reforms, which in 2022-2023 reduced premiums by £15. The government press release can be accessed here.
Claims Statistics – OIC and MOJ
Combined numbers of low value claims submitted remain well below pre-reforms levels and show no signs of increasing, despite road traffic levels returning to pre-pandemic numbers.
The latest monthly OIC statistics showed that 19,962 new claims were submitted in February 2025, down from 24,200 on the same month in 2024. The statistics pack can be accessed here. Unfortunately due to an error in reporting the MOJ Portal statistics are not currently available – the amount of new claims received is hovering around 7000-8000 however. The combined sum of new claims is unlikely to average more than 30,000 a month going forward, compared to around double that pre-reforms.
CRU statistics will tell us more when they are released for 2024-2025 next month. New Motor claims had slid to a record low of 348,806 in the last year: 2019-2020 amounted to 653,052 by way of comparison.
Legislation
As ever, there are a number of bills making their way through parliament that are transport-related.
The Bus Services Bill is making good progress and is nearly through the Lords, being up to Report stage with only the third reading to follow before it transfers to the House of Commons. You can access the bill here but in general it covers franchising, green issues and community issues, including the removal of routes for financial reasons and the impact on communities.
We have already mentioned the Road Traffic Offences (Cycling) Bill but that is a private members bill, which are often subject to failure due to lack of parliamentary time. The Railways Bill will be introduced at some point once the consultation closes.
One SI has come into force amending legislation relation to drivers' hours and tachograph rules for international transport journeys – implanting the UK's obligations under the UK and European Union Trade and Cooperation Agreement. This changes drivers hours and tachograph rules relating to either passenger services or HGV's registered outside the UK and EU; drivers of in-scope vehicles between the EU and UK will now need to produce 56 days instead of 28 days tachograph data. The SI can be found here.
Transport Committee: Access Denied: rights versus reality in disabled people's access to transport.
On the 20th March 2025, the Transport Committee published its latest report into the experiences of disabled people using transport. Unfortunately it appears that there is still a large gap between what rights exist in theory and the daily experience of disabled people on buses, trains, taxis and pavements in the UK. Holding transport operators to account is difficult for disabled people, not helped by the complicated regulatory arrangements given the number of different operators in each space. A unified complaints system is recommended along with a review of transport accessibility legislation. The full report can be accessed via this link here.
Discount Rate England and Wales.
The England and Wales decision was as expected, matching the Scotland and Northern Ireland changes and moving to +0.5%.
This will be a relief to insurers who can now take down reserves in future loss cases, although many negotiations over recent months will have been carried out with the adjustment in mind. The DWF article on the changes written by Mike Renshaw, Partner, can be found here.
Other Motor Industry News
Although not fresh news, since the last newsletter the government has launched the Motor Insurance Taskforce to try and combat the currently high cost of motor insurance in the UK when compared with elsewhere. Originally Louise Haigh was to lead the taskforce but she unfortunately resigned her post. Heidi Alexander (Justice) and Lilian Greenwood (Minister for Roads) seem the most likely chairs going forward. Members of the group include the ABI, MIB, MOJ, Which?, Compare the Market, SMMT and crucially two financial and conduct watch dogs, the FCA and the CMA.
Only one meeting has taken place so far, in October 2024, with the January 2025 meeting cancelled due to ministerial issues. Whilst the full remit has not been set out, we can expect that the taskforce will look at the cost of repairs, credit hire and personal injury. They will also look at other causes of rising costs such as potholes, car thefts and the burgeoning EV market pushing up insured vehicle values. In particular they want to tackle very high premiums for young drivers – the last few quarters of data do appear to show reducing premiums, albeit slowly. Expect the taskforce to reach out with a call for evidence. Further details from DWF, who will pay a full part in the process when requested, can be found here.
Thefts
The DVLA has released theft figures for 2024. With news that will please the taskforce, the DVLA report a 6% drop in thefts from 2023 levels. There was an astonishing drop of 47% for Range Rover Sports, perhaps a safety update was applied! Fleetnews have obtained the data which can be found here.
Consultations
The enquiry into the work of the County Court was re-opened in late January 2025 and has just closed again – both FOIL and DWF have responded, with the unfortunate feedback from the business that court waiting times in the civil space had not fallen much – demonstrated by the court data. Last minute adjournments of trials are also still an issue.
The CJC's consultation on Litigation Funding is closed in early March and DWF as well as FOIL responded.
A transport related consultation is taking place regarding the Rail network and taking it back into private hands – that consultation, called A railway fit for Britain's future, can be accessed here.
