Compensation payout for bus accident victim

A motorcyclist was paid compensation for injuries he suffered in an accident involving a bus, the Observer of June, 1929, revealed.

Campbell Douglas, upholsterer, 28 Shiphaugh Place, Riverside, Stirling, had sued the Scottish General Omnibus Company for £1000.

The action for was due to be heard in the Court of Session but was settled beforehand with the company agreeing to pay Mr Douglas £300 plus expenses.

Mr Douglas on his way to work on the morning of August 16, 1928, when the accident happened.

His motorbike and sidecar turned out of Shiphaugh Place into Sutherland Place and collided with the bus.

Mr Douglas said he was riding slowly but claimed the bus was travelling at an‘excessive and dangerous rate of speed’and on the wrong side of the road.

The motorbike and sidecar were pushed 90 feet in front of the bus before coming to a stop, leaving Mr Douglas unconscious and with his right leg broken in two places and his right forearm also broken.

He was off work for 10 weeks and had to fork out £40 for repairs to his motor bike and sidecar.

As a result of the injuries he suffered, he was left with a permanently shortened right leg. He was also unable to bend his right knee,.

Defending the action for damages, the bus company alleged the motorcycle emerged ‘suddenly and without warning’from Shiphaugh Place making the accident‘unavoidable’.

Lawyers claimed Mr Douglas did not have proper control of his motorbike and was driving carelessly and at a speed too great for the circumstances that unfolded.