Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Michael Eyres worked as a fitter for Atkinson’s Kitchens of Bradford.
On August 11 2004 he momentarily fell asleep whilst driving his van on the M1, after an 18 hour working day, lost control and overturned causing injuries that left Mr. Eyres paralysed.
He was awarded £40,000 compensation as an interim payment. Final compensation is expected to be over £1million.
Eyres’ solicitor, Daniel Herman, said “what this case says is that if you employ people and you either turn a blind eye to them working very long hours or – as the judge found in this case – actually encourage your employees to work very long hours, and they have an accident where tiredness is a factor, then you could be liable if someone is injured”.
Lord Justice Ward said Eyres was only in “that predicament because his employers had put him there".