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Last Updated 29th September 2025. It’s vital that you always wear a seatbelt when travelling in a vehicle; however, what if you are injured in a car accident that wasn’t your fault and you weren’t wearing a seatbelt at the time? Can you still claim? The answer is yes, you can still claim compensation for a car accident and not wearing a seatbelt, but your compensation will be reduced due to contributory negligence. We know this might seem complex, but don’t worry, we’re here to help you navigate road traffic accident claims.
If you contact us here at Advice, our team of professionals will offer you a complimentary consultation to discuss key aspects of your claim, including your eligibility and potential compensation estimates. Moreover, our solicitors will provide you with their legal services on a No Win No Fee basis so that you can claim without delay. Get in touch today using the contact details below:
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- Call us on 0161 509 2856
- Contact us online
- When you get in touch with us, you’re talking to a real expert advisor, not a chatbot, so you know you’re always getting the best possible service.
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Important Questions Answered
- What injuries are caused by not wearing a seatbelt? Depending on the speed you were travelling and the severity of the collision, injuries can range from broken bones to brain damage.
- How much compensation can I get? Compensation varies on a case-by-case basis and will also be affected by how much you were deemed to have contributed to your injuries.
- Do I need to report a car accident? Any accident that causes injury or damage needs to be reported to the police.
- Can I claim if I suffered whiplash? Yes, you could still claim if you suffered whiplash, but how you would make your claim would differ.
- How can a solicitor help me? Our solicitors will provide you with a robust range of support services, such as gathering evidence on your behalf and negotiating with the defendant’s solicitors.
Select A Section
- Calculate Compensation For A Car Accident When Not Wearing A Seatbelt
- Compensation For Losses And Expenses Caused By Your Accident
- What Injuries Are Caused By Not Wearing A Seatbelt?
- What Is The Penalty For Not Wearing A Seatbelt In The UK?
- What Happens When You Crash Without Wearing A Seatbelt?
- Seatbelt Laws In The UK
- How Contributory Negligence Could Affect Your Claim
- Working Out Liability When You Were Not Wearing A Seatbelt
- No Win No Fee Claims For RTAs When Not Wearing A Seatbelt
- Why Choose Our Friendly Team?
- Talk To Our Road Traffic Accident Claims Team
- More Information On Car And Traffic Accident Claims
Calculate Compensation For A Car Accident When Not Wearing A Seatbelt
You might wonder how compensation payouts are calculated for personal injury claims. If so, you might be interested to learn that they would carefully assess the evidence (such as dash-cam footage), the circumstances and the facts of the case.
One important piece of evidence that they would use is a medical report. You would receive this assessment by attending an appointment with an independent medical professional. The medical expert would review any relevant medical notes, examine your injuries, and provide a report detailing their professional assessment of your injuries as well as your prognosis.
A solicitor would use this, along with a publication called the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), to value your injuries. The JCG is useful to them because it publishes suggested brackets for compensation that cover a wide range of injuries.
Below, we have produced a table containing brackets taken from the JCG. It has been included only as guidance, and the top row isn’t from the publication.
| Injury type | Notes | Guideline Payout Bracket |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple severe injuries and financial losses | Multiple severe injuries and the costs associated, such as payments for private medical treatment. | Up to £500,000+ |
| Severe back injury (i) | Where there is spinal cord or nerve root damage. There could be serious consequences of such an injury. | £111,150 to £196,450 |
| Minor back injury (i) | Injuries include lumbar region vertebrae crush/compression fractures leading to osteoarthritis as well as ongoing pain. | £9,630 to £15,260 |
| Severe neck injuries (i) | Injuries include incomplete paraplegia or permanent cases of spastic quadriparesis. | In the region of £181,020 |
| Moderate neck injury (i) | Neck injuries limiting a person’s ability to go about normal daily activities, or those that lead to chronic conditions. Severe fractures/dislocations could also be included here. | £30,500 to £46,970 |
| Severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Cases so severe that the person may be unable to work. The condition would impact every area of their life. | £73,050 to £122,850 |
| Moderate Post Traumatic Stress Disorder | In these cases, the injured party would have almost entirely recovered. Any lasting effects would not be highly disturbing. | £9,980 to £28,250 |
| Severe shoulder injury | Examples of injuries in this bracket could include significant disabilities from brachial plexus damage. | £23,430 to £58,610 |
| Moderate shoulder injury | Your symptoms could last for around 2 years. Frozen shoulder/soft tissue injuries could be compensated for in this bracket. | £9,630 to £15,580 |
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Compensation For Losses And Expenses Caused By Your Accident
If you receive a compensation settlement for a road traffic accident, you might not realise it, but the settlement may include different types of damages.
General Damages
General damages compensate personal injury victims for their suffering, pain and loss of amenity. The amounts in the table above are examples of general damages payouts. Courts and lawyers come to appropriate settlements for these damages by assessing how severe the injuries are and how they affect the victim in the short and long term.
Special Damages
Special damages compensate victims for the quantifiable financial impact of their injuries. You would need to evidence any costs and losses you experience as a direct result of your injuries to claim for them. It could be a wise idea to keep hold of documentation such as bank statements, receipts, payslips and bills for this reason. There are various types of special damages you could claim, as we describe below.
Loss Of Income
If you suffer serious injuries that mean you cannot attend work as normal, you could lose out on income. Special damages payouts could include such a loss of earnings. You could even claim for overtime or bonuses you’ve missed out on. If you are unable to return to work due to the severity of your injuries, you could even receive a payout for future loss of income in some cases.
Care Costs
Sadly, some people suffer such serious injuries that they are unable to care for themselves. If someone has to care for you at home because of your injuries, whether long-term or short-term, you could claim care costs as special damages.
Travel Costs
Some personal injury victims claim for travel costs they incur while attending hospital appointments or lawyer’s meetings.
Medical Expenses
If a personal injury victim incurs medical expenses, such as physiotherapy costs, counselling costs or prescription charges, they could include such costs within their claims.
What Injuries Are Caused By Not Wearing A Seatbelt?
According to the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS), nearly a third of those killed in road traffic collisions in 2018 in Great Britain weren’t wearing seatbelts. Seatbelts are a safety feature that are meant to protect the occupants of a motor vehicle from 3 different types of collision, which are:
- The collision of a vehicle with another object.
- A collision of a vehicle occupant with the interior of the vehicle.
- The collision of the occupant’s internal organs with other organs or their skeletal structure.
What Happens When You Crash Without Wearing A Seatbelt?
Depending on the speeds at which the vehicle is travelling and the severity of the collision, car occupants not wearing a seatbelt could sustain:
- Facial injuries, such as a broken nose or a head injury from hitting the seat in front/the windscreen
- A traumatic head injury or serious brain damage if they collide with the vehicle’s interior or are thrown from the vehicle
- Broken bones from being thrown around the vehicle or out of it
- Chest and abdomen injuries
Can You Get Whiplash Without Wearing A Seatbelt?
While you might assume that being restrained by a seatbelt could mean a whiplash injury could be more common, you might be interested to learn that those without a seatbelt could sustain whiplash injuries too. The jerking of the head and neck that cause whiplash injuries could occur with or without a seatbelt.
If you’ve sustained one of the injuries above, or other injuries, and are wondering if you could claim compensation, we could help. You can call us for free legal advice and an eligibility check, even if you were not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident.
What Is The Penalty For Not Wearing A Seatbelt In The UK?
If you’re wondering what the penalty is for not wearing a seatbelt, if you as the driver do not wear a seatbelt, and you are supposed to, you can receive a fine of up to £500. Adult passengers in vehicles are responsible for wearing their own seatbelts. If you’re wondering who gets fined for not wearing a seatbelt if there are children involved, this would be the driver. The driver can be fined £500 if children under 14 aren’t in appropriate seats or wearing seatbelts.
What Happens When You Crash Without Wearing A Seatbelt?
If you’re in a road traffic accident and you are not wearing a seatbelt, depending on where you are in the vehicle, you could sustain injuries or even injure someone else. Examples of how this could happen could include:
- Unrestrained back seat passengers flying forward into the person in front
- Front seat passengers hitting their head on the windscreen
This was illustrated in a study conducted to assess the impact of not wearing a seatbelt. (source: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/horrifying-crash-test-footage-reveals-13554136)
However, there are various other ways in which people could be injured in a car accident when not wearing a seatbelt. Being thrown around a vehicle or out of it could lead to:
- Pelvis and back injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Broken bones
What Are The Odds Of Dying From A Car Crash With No Seatbelt?
Sadly, some injuries in a car crash when not wearing a seatbelt could be fatal. According to the government’s road safety campaign THINK!, you’re twice as likely to sustain a fatal injury if you’re not wearing a seatbelt.
Seatbelt Laws In The UK
Wearing a seatbelt was enshrined into law on 31st January 1983. In 1991, the law changed again to make it illegal for adults not to wear seatbelts in the back of a car. There are only a few exceptions to this:
- When you have a medical exemption (you must have a certificate for this)
- If you’re in a vehicle used for rescue, fire or police services
- When you are a passenger in a vehicle used for trade and are investigating a suspected fault
- If you’re delivering goods from a goods vehicle and there are fewer than 50 metres between your stops
- When you’re reversing, or you’re supervising a learner that is reversing
- If you’re a licensed taxi driver ‘plying for hire’ or carrying passengers
If a vehicle does not have child restraints or seatbelts, you cannot carry children under the age of 3.
How Contributory Negligence Could Affect Your Claim
If you are not wearing a seatbelt and sustain injuries from a car crash, your car accident claim could be affected by something called contributory negligence. There are two sides to this, however, whether you’re claiming as a driver injured by another motorist, or a passenger in a car accident where the driver’s negligence caused an accident.
- One view could be that the other party’s negligent driving caused the accident. If they had not driven negligently, the accident would have been unlikely to happen.
- The other view could be that the claimant not wearing a seatbelt caused them more serious injuries than they would have sustained had they worn one.
A Legal Precedent
In Froom v Butcher 1976, the presiding judge ruled that the claimant’s compensation must be reduced by 25% to reflect their contribution to their injuries. This means that lawyers and courts could argue that your compensation should be reduced if you claim but were not wearing a seatbelt when the accident occurred.
Working Out Liability When You Were Not Wearing A Seatbelt
If you’re injured in a car accident that wasn’t your fault, when you were not wearing a seatbelt, there could be liability on both sides. Like every road user, drivers in the UK have a responsibility to operate in a way that avoids injury both to themselves and to others. If they do not do so, they could be held liable for the injuries people sustain as a result of that accident.
However, the liable party could argue that your injuries were only as serious as they were because you weren’t wearing a seatbelt. If you’d like free advice or assistance in claiming, our advisors would be happy to speak with you.
No Win No Fee Claims For RTAs When Not Wearing A Seatbelt
Our solicitors offer their clients the option of making No Win No Fee claims for road traffic accidents involving individuals not wearing a seatbelt. The specific arrangement they work under is the Conditional Fee Agreement, which ensures you won’t pay them any solicitor fees upfront, as the case progresses, or if your claim loses.
How No Win No Fee Claims Work
- Your chosen lawyer would send you a No Win No Fee agreement. They would ask you to carefully review it, sign it, and send it back. Within the document are details of a success fee. This is a small, legally capped percentage of your compensation that your solicitor takes for the work they’ve done. You only pay this if you win.
- Once you sign and send back the agreement, your lawyer will begin to build your case and advocate on your behalf. Many claims never reach court, but if yours does, they would support you through the process.
- Your compensation would come through. Your lawyer would deduct the aforementioned success fee, and the rest would go to you.
If you have any questions about No Win No Fee agreements, you can always pick up the phone and talk to our advisory team; they’ll be happy to give you the information you’re looking for.
Why Choose Our Friendly Team?
You should choose to work with our friendly team of advisors because they will provide you with completely free support to help you get started with your claim. They will assess the merits of your case and, if you’re eligible, put you in touch with one of our dedicated solicitors.
When claiming for a car accident where you were not wearing a seatbelt, it can often be beneficial to have the expert insight of a solicitor. Our solicitors base their expertise on years of experience in handling road traffic accident claims nationwide.
If you work with Advice’s solicitor, we will support you through the claims process by:
- Helping you to gather the evidence that can ensure you have the strongest possible claim for a car accident without a seatbelt
- Maintaining excellent communication so that you have the latest updates on the state of your case
- Connecting you with specialists who could aid your recovery, such as physiotherapists
- Negotiating tirelessly to secure a settlement that reflects the harm you suffered
If you would like to claim for a car accident while not wearing a seatbelt, get in touch today. A member of our advisory team could connect you with a No Win No Fee solicitor today and bring you one step closer to gaining compensation.
Talk To Our Road Traffic Accident Claims Team
Are you ready to begin your claim, or would you like further advice on making a claim? Either way, we’re ready to help you. You can reach the team here at Advice.co.uk by:
- Call us on 0161 509 2856
- Contact us online
- When you get in touch with us, you’re talking to a real expert advisor, not a chatbot, so you know you’re always getting the best possible service.
More Information On Car And Traffic Accident Claims
- Road Traffic Injury Statistics: If you’d like to know how many accidents occur on UK roads, this link provides statistics.
- Seat Belts: Time For Action: You can read PACTS’ publication on seat belts here.
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