Description
16 Year Old Passenger Not Wearing Seat Belt Not Guilty Of Contributory Negligence:The Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge's decision that a 16 year old front seat passenger who had sustained serious brain damage in a road traffic accident had not been contributorily negligent, notwithstanding that he had carried another passenger on his lap and neither of them had been wearing seat belts. The Court of Appeal held that the trial judge was best placed to view the evidence as a whole and determine whether the expert evidence was sufficient to show whether the wearing of a seat belt would, on a balance of probabilities, have reduced the injuries sufficiently to dictate a reduction in damages for contributory negligence. Further, the trial judge had not erred in posing the question as one of whether the wearing of a seatbelt would have made a considerable difference.
