Personal injury news
17/11/2011

Former jockey claims £22k for missing toe

A retired jockey has won a £22,000 personal injury claim after damaging his toe at the Somerset farm where he worked.

The former rider had been taken on as equestrian facilities manager just a fortnight before dropping two wooden pallets onto his left foot while attempting to move them.

The top half of his big toe was badly injured in the work accident, and had to be removed after it became infected.

"After the pallet fell, I didn't think much about it but it was extremely painful," he said.

"After a few days, the pain was so intense I could not even walk, so I went to A&E at Musgrove Hospital in Taunton. There, the doctors told me that the top half of my big toe would have to be amputated because it had become so badly infected."

The jockey, who has not returned to work, said he did not even receive an apology from his employers.

His personal injury claim solicitor said the farm should have provided steel toe-capped boots for employees. "There was no safe system of work in place," he said.

After the hearing, a spokesman for the farm described the work injury as a ‘terrible accident'.

"Farms are dangerous places," he told reporters at the Taunton People. "In hindsight we should have instructed him to wear the right footwear."

The personal injury claim could damage the reputation of the farm, which currently rates among the top equestrian centres in south west England.