Bus accident victim set for six-figure payout after Plaistow accident

Monday, July 2, 2012
4:00 PM

A boy who was aged just 10 when he went under the wheels of a bus on a pedestrian crossing in Plaistow has won the right to massive compensation for his injuries.

Little Medamin Dubad strayed away from his hard-pressed mother and ran over the crossing on Balaam Street, near the junction with Sewell Street, on June 24, 2008.

He was dragged along under the bus’s wheels and owed his life to the fact that there was a police van in the same line of traffic with a highly qualified medic on board.

The medic and police officers managed to stop the boy being moved and gave him life-saving treatment in the road. However, Medamin suffered appalling orthopaedic and internal injuries which will blight the rest of his life.

Stricken by post traumatic stress disorder, Medamin, now 14, endured multiple operations, still has internal difficulties after his midriff was crushed and cannot even sit down comfortably.

Through his father, Abdillahi Dubad, of Romford Road, Manor Park, Medamin sued the bus driver’s employers –East London Bus and Coach Company Ltd – who today agreed he should be compensated on the basis of 51 per cent liability.

That means Medamin is now entitled to a least high six-figure compensation to fund the care and support he will need for the rest of his life.

Approving the compromise on the issue of liability at London’s High Court, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said the accident took place on a bright and clear day.

An accident expert who reported on the case said that Medamin ran unsupervised across the road after getting away from his mother, who had three other children, including a baby in a pram, with her and was 17 seconds away from the scene.

The bus driver did not see him at all before the collision and the judge added: “It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he was ahead of his mother and sought to cross the pedestrian crossing without taking sufficient care.”

However, he added that the bus driver was a professional who “owed a heightened duty of care” to pedestrians and other road users.

The judge described the liability settlement as “sensible” and congratulated the parties on reaching a compromise without the need for the anguish and expense of a contested trial.

Unless final settlement terms are agreed in the meantime, the amount of Medamin’s damages will have to be assessed at a further court hearing. His lawyers say that, even after a 49% reduction in his payout, he could be due up to a million pounds.