Compensation claim for raver in bridge fall
A compensation claim has been made after a man fell 30ft from a bridge on to a disused railway line during an illegal rave party.
Andrew Henley, 26, from Milton in Staffordshire, was left in a coma for three weeks and took a further seven months to recover from the near-fatal accident, which took place in nearby Keele in October 2006. He claims to still suffer mental and physical injuries, including permanent damage to his arms and what his family has described as a change in personality, such as a short temper and a lack of motivation.
The incident took place in the early hours of the morning, while Mr Henley and his girlfriend at the time made their way to a party that they had heard rumours about.
“The path to the rave was marked out with glowsticks, but some of them had been nicked,” he said. “You had to go over the tunnel to get down, but because it was so dark I went straight over the hedge and fell on to the railway line.”
The fall caused Mr Henley to suffer a fractured skull, broken tibia, four fractured ribs and permanent damage to his elbows. According to his father, he even came close to dying from his injuries during the first few days of the three-week coma.
Since the accident, Mr Henley has found it difficult to find employment. At first he returned to his old job, only to be made redundant a few months later. He has now asked his solicitor to start proceedings to claim compensation for the accident. It is unclear who owns the land where the accident happened, which is 100 yards from the nearest road, but it is believed that it could belong to Network Rail.
Mr Henley added: “You can’t get to the place now, there’s fences all around it and it’s all padlocked. If it had been like that before, I wouldn’t have had the accident.”