Industry news roundup: week ended 27th August 2012:
It seems like it just doesn’t pay to be a copper today, considering how if you’re not causing road traffic accidents, you’re ending up costing your local authority thousands in personal injury compensation awards for work accident claims.
Maybe it’s just our perception, but it seems like you couldn’t swing a cat without encountering a news story regarding the police as either being involved in some sort of RTA where a citizen ends up rather injured or police officers ending up suffering personal injury at work themselves. We know that it’s a tough, sometimes dangerous line of work – and we’re grateful for everything those boys in blue due to keep us safe – but sometimes it’s as if they’re their own worst enemies!
Last week saw a news story coming to light about how the North Wales Police Force inadvertently nearly cripple an elderly pensioner by accident. A ninety year old woman had been crossing the street when she was hit by a police car, sending her to hospital for a seven month long hospital stay; this isn’t just a case of a few cuts and scrapes that you can just slap a sticking plaster on and send the patient home – there were broken legs, arms, and elbows, and medical staff say it’s dodgy whether the poor woman will be able to walk properly.
The driver of the police car may have been cleared of reckless driving by a local Magistrates’ Court, but that hasn’t stopped the pensioner from making an accident claim against North Wales Police, and a police spokesperson refused to comment on the case, as it was still pending. Of course, police forces across the UK have more to worry about than just that, as it seems like when law enforcement officers aren’t hitting little old ladies, they’re doing damage to one another!
In fact, another news report emerged that Lancashire Police Force has been a hotbed of activity when it came to personal injury at work over the last five years. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4,000 injuries were reported from 2007, some of them self-inflicted while others being the result of accidents caused by colleagues.
2011’s injury figures in Lancashire were up over 2010’s, according to a recent Freedom of Information request, but a police force spokesman was quick to point out that the number of accidents was actually trending down overall. Not much comfort for someone laid up in hospital while they’re recovering from a possibly life-threatening injury, but at least they’re not off running over pensioners.