Taxi driver broke my wheel chair.?

Question

PLEASE READ!!!

Last week I brought a brand new wheel chair from a car boot so no guarantee or receipt or returns but it was fairly cheap and was new in the box. It is for my 93 year old grandmother who relies on it to get around outside. Well today, I had a taxi and was on my way to pick up my grandmother. When he came he picked up the folded wheel chair with one hand on a bar at the bottom and one grabbing the arm rest. He picked it up to the height of the boot and the armrest snapped off into his hand dropping the wheel chair.(But it landed safely.) Later I called the taxi company explaining what had happened and all they had to say was that there drivers wouldn't do that or it was the only way to pick up the wheel chair or it was already broke (which it wasn't). Anyway they are refusing to pay for it. What do I do? it will be very uncomfortable to sit in without putting your arm up and if you do it would hurt after a period of time. Is there a way for me to get them to pay to repair it?

Answer 1

You have no claim at all. The law is based on "what a reasonable person would do" ??

It is reasonable to expect the driver to lift the chair out by the arm or whatever he could grab. wheelchairs are designed to be lifted out of cars etc. Therefore it must be that this arm was broken or weak. If you lifted it out by that arm it would have broke. If the Driver was reckless in that he threw it on the road then yes you have a case but he did what is reasonable - he lifted the chair out and the arm broke. How else was he supposed to get the chair out. ?



Edit > Hotwheels > That is not in dispute. My answer states "what a reasonable person would do" NOT what a person having been trained in the full knowledge of the best way to lift a wheelchair, would do.

If the owner said to the driver - Do not lift it by the arms it will break ? Then yes you have a point. A reasonable person would expect the arms to be strong enough. I would.



Edit - Hotwheels > You assume I am Not in a wheelchair or have never had relatives in a wheelchair.

You are talking of the assumed "right thing to do" I am talking about the law. The questioner wants to get the Taxi firm to pay for the chair. This will require application of the law. I do not believe that the arms on a wheelchair are constructed in such a way as to make using an arm to lift the chair a fundamental risk of breaking that arm. I therefore advise the questioner - not you - that I am right in law. I further advise the questioner to contact the maker of the chair and try to get some recompense that way. You have NOT "kinked" me. I can understand you mixing your desire as to what you want to be right with my legally right answer.

Example - it may be the done thing to pull up in a lay-by to answer a mobile phone in a car and most people will say, including you, that this is Ok because you are not driving the car. Even I would accept that NOT driving the car and using the phone is in fact harmless. But LEGALLY you commit the same offence as if you were driving along the road. The law is NOT the same as general behaviour. The taxi driver has not broken the law (civil law) the owner of the wheelchair will not get any money for the repair unless the Taxi firm/driver pays up voluntarily.



Edit > I consider myself to be a "reasonable" person. I would deduce that the wheels turn/move, even when you grab them. I would therefore use the arms. It may not be the way YOU would do it but that does not mean that other people would not consider using the arms a s an appropriate way. That is why the doctrine in English law is based around "reasonable". There is not set way - ALL PEOPLE WHO PICK UP A WHEEL CHAIR MUST USE THE WHEELS. ALL PEOPLE WHO DRINK FROM A MUG MUST USE THE HANDLE. ????



Edit > Hotwheels > i am not arguing. You have a point of view - I have another point of view. I am sure you are avery nice person so I will accede to your input. The trouble is that the written word is one dimensional - we do not see body language or eye contact etc to establish an attitude. I hope the questioner has gained from this LOL

Best regards to you for now.

Answer 2

If you have a witness or other evidence to prove that the driver broke the wheelchair then you have a claim against them. This can be enforced by suing them in the Small Claims Track of the County Court. Get the claim form from the court it costs less than £100 to raise a claim, and you get that back if you win.



Regardless of what the company said - it does not matter in the slightest How he broke it, or whether he picked it up by a weak component or not. The fact that he broke it would be good enough for a successful claim. The court would reason that a taxi driver should be competent enough to handle common luggage, which would certainly include folding wheelchairs.



The comment by the company about it being already broke or that a driver would not do this, was just an ignorant statement made for fobbing off. Ignore it.



BUT



If you do not have any supporting evidence that the driver broke it (your own word is not good enough) then you have no chance of a successful claim.

Answer 3

You are having a joke aint you?



Taxi drive picks up your wheelchair to put into the taxi

(you have NO idea the condition of cos you bought it at a car boot sale, you have NO idea if it was broke or not when you bought it , - you dont even know if it was brand new

The ONLY thing you know is the box it was in was new- For all YOU know he could have bought a new one and put the old one (in good condition) in the box

Did the seller not having a receipt or guaranteed for a supposedly brand new item not give you a clue?)



wheelchair breaks in his hand and falls onto the floor and you are blaming HIM for it breaking it!!!!



You are damned luck he wasnt injured cos if he had been he could have sued the hell out of you

and you have NO chance getting him to pay for it.



What do you do? - you get another one

Answer 4

you have no proof....AND you bought it cheap...... wheelchairs are not supposed to be cheap, trust me, mine runs over 2000 USD... that being said, you cant prove that it wasnt already faulty when the driver picked it up. THAT DOES MATTER..... a faulty chair can break..... not quite sure how to handle this, but whichever way you go, i dont think youll be successful in getting reimbursed. its kind of the risk you take for taking public transportation. ive flown before and my chair has come out with bent bars, missing bolts, etc. and theres nothing i can do about it but get it repaired..



edit: actually myrtel, the best way to lift a chair is by its wheels, the front bars, or the back handle bars..... just sayin, cuz it is common for arm rests to come off either on purpose or to "break" off as it has done here. Mine are interchangable, and i can take them off and put them on as i would like. so i would never suggest someone lift MY chair by the arm rests...



editL youre right Myrtel. this is not a dispute considering i actually KNOW what is reasonable and what is not. I after all have lived in, and grown up in a chair....and you obviously do not know what is or is not reasonable, your simple assumption is not correct. thats all i was saying.... and a person does not have to be "trained" in order to know this information. a reasonable person would see that the strongest point in the chair would be at the wheels and not the arms. or even better, a reasonable person would ASK what is the best way to lift the chair.... considering ive had over 100's of people lift my chair and they either do one or the other.... i can in fact say that you are wrong.. sorry if that puts your attitude in a kink...



Edit - Myrtel, by just assessing the way you are it is easy to assume you do not use a chair, nor do you more than likely have relatives that use one. so yes, i assume you have no experience based on how you would treat the chair. if you had read my PREVIOUS answer, about the law, you would see that i already answered that. the asker has no actual proof that the taxi man actually broke the chair. This simple fact would make the asker unsuccessful in trying to sue anyone for the damages. this is also a right interpretation of the law, in a court of law, the burden of proof is on the prosecutor, and there is no proof...the asker also already made an assertion that they understood that there is no garantee or receipt or return. he/she bought it as is with that understanding, and with that, they probably will not get any real type of recompense for the chair breaking. so, there is no "desire" to be right, you have just simply failed in trying to prove me wrong, i have both answered the question (in legal ways) and put personal experience in the mix to try to allow the asker to understand a simple fact about wheelchairs. there is nothing wrong with that.



ps: there are breaks there for a reason..... a reasonable person would put them on first before lifting the chair. just sayin.. as i said, i have had 100's of people lift my chair in the way i have suggested. i did not say in any form that everyone else does the same. thats common knowledge and that is not what i was saying..



i also do not need a lesson in English law.... i do have some common sense on what you are saying, and i do understand clearly what you are saying, i however i never said people "MUST" use the wheels, it was merely a suggestion of what is BEST...i also did give other options as well that are also considered the BEST option... i said the wheels, the front bars, or the back bars are more than likely the best ways to lift a chair.....dont get stuck on just the wheels as the only option i gave....can we not argue anymore about this? let the asker decide.....



edit: likewise :) we surely have given them quite a bit of information to ponder on havent we! haha best of luck to you as well

Answer 5

"brand new" from a boot sale. Do me a favour!!!



If the arm rest came away just from being picked up then it was a crap chair anyway.



Why on earth should he pay for it?