One British tourist suffered serious internal injuries and spent a month in hospital after an incident at a wildlife reserve and is, along with other tourists in the party, suing the wildlife reserve, which has its head office in the UK, for personal injury and accident compensation.
Eight tourists had gone on a day’s jeep safari at the wildlife reserve. Their guide had driven close to a pride of lions. One of the lionesses lunged at the jeep and the safari guide quickly reversed the jeep. However, the open-sided jeep overturned, spilling the tourists and causing injuries such as broken ribs, internal bleeding, concussion and bruising. The injured tourists then faced a half hour wait for a second jeep to rescue them whilst surrounded by the pride of lions.
The tourists claim that the safari guide drove too close to the dangerous animals and had not been trained to deal with emergency situations. There was nothing in the jeep to act as a barrier to protect the tourists from the lions. There were claims there was no gun in the jeep either, but a gun may not have been permitted. It is not clear whether the incident involved white lions, which live on the reserve, and very rare white lions have protected status.
The tourists are claiming accident compensation for injuries sustained, post-traumatic stress disorders, medical expenses and, in some cases, loss of earnings for time taken off work whilst injuries healed.
If you have been injured on holiday as a result of an accident which was someone else’s fault, you may be able to make an accident compensation claim if your claim is against a UK-owned company or is part of a package holiday. If you have been injured in such an accident, please contact Vicky Jones on 0116 212 1000 now or complete one of the on-line forms.
