Average Broken Sternum Settlements After A Car Accident: A Guide To Breastbone Fracture Compensation

The sternum is the long, flat bone in the centre of the chest connecting to the ribs. A fractured or broken sternum may be caused by blunt force trauma, such as that experienced in a road traffic accident. In this guide we look at how a broken sternum car accident settlement may be calculated.

Broken Sternum In A Car Accident Key Takeaways:

  • If another road user has caused an accident that resulted in your broken sternum, you could claim compensation.
  • The severity of the break and how it impacts you will affect the level of damages in your case.
  • Financial losses can be included if you can prove they are accident related.
  • You can still claim even if you were partly at fault for the crash.
  • The expert road traffic accident solicitors from our panel could help you on a No Win No Fee basis.

To find out more about fractured sternum claims please:

A man holds his chest, he may have a fractured sternum.

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Am I Eligible To Claim For A Fractured Sternum After A Car Accident?

In the UK all road users have a legal duty of care. They must ensure that their actions do not cause harm to other road users. This duty of care applies to any road user, such as a motorist, motorcyclist, cyclist or even pedestrian.

To meet this duty, they have to comply with rules and regulations contained in the Highway Code and The Road Traffic Act 1988.

You could be eligible to claim compensation if you suffered sternum injuries in a car accident. To do so, you must meet the following eligibility criteria.

  1. The other road user had a duty of care to you.
  2. They breached this duty of care by failing to meet the standard of care expected by a reasonable road user.
  3. This breach caused you to suffer a fractured or broken sternum.

Your claim must also be started within the relevant time period. We will explore this later in our guide.

One of our advisors could help you if you suffered chest injuries, such as a fractured sternum. Please contact us for more information.

Average Settlement For A Broken Sternum Caused By A Car Accident

In general, personal injury claims are valued based on the individual circumstances of the case. This takes the type of injury, such as a fractured sternum, and financial losses into account. This means that how much compensation may be awarded varies, and an average settlement for a fractured sternum in the UK is not very useful to you.

How Compensation Amounts Are Calculated

There are two heads of loss which may be taken into account when calculating fractured sternum claims. The first of these is general damages. These compensate for any pain and suffering your injury caused.

A solicitor or other party may refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to calculate this part of your claim. The JCG is a document which contains information and suggested guidelines for compensation for different forms of injury.

The first entry in the table below shows a figure that would represent a case with serious injuries and a high figure for financial losses. The remaining entries are taken from the JCG.

InjurySeverityDamages
Multiple injuriesSerious or severeUp to £300,000+ with significant special damages.
Chest injuriesA - Removal of a lung and/ or heart damage£122,850 to £183,190
B - Traumatic chest injury, permanent damage.£80,240 to £122,850
C - Damage to chest and lungs. Some disability£38,210 to £66,920
D - Simple injury£15,370 to £21,920
F - injuries causing collapsed lung. Full recovery£2,680 to £6,500
G - Fractured ribsUp to £4,820
Shoulder injuryE - Fractured clavicle£6,280 to £14,940

Special Damages And How They Factor Into Your Claim

Special damages may also be included in your broken sternum car accident settlement. This part of your settlement is designed to compensate you for financial losses caused by your accident.

For example, you may have had to take some time off work during your recovery, have to pay for costly medical bills, or even need help around the home. You could be compensated for these (and other expenses) if you can show that they are related to your injury.

In order to claim for loss of earnings or other expenses you must provide evidence of said losses. Admissible evidence may include copies of invoices, receipts, bank statements or payslips.

A chest x-ray may show a sternum fracture.

Why Are Fractured Breastbones Common After Road Traffic Accidents?

Government statistics show that sternal fractures are present in 3.7% of people who are involved in road traffic accidents and who require hospital care.

Road traffic accidents and collisions may cause sternum fractures due to the high-impact forces involved. When a car suddenly changes direction or stops during a collision, your chest may impact either the dashboard or steering wheel, causing a sternum fracture. Similarly, during accidents such as front-end collisions, your seatbelt may also cause this particular injury.

Sternum injuries could be caused by road traffic accidents, such as:

  • A car crash on the motorway.
  • Rear end car accidents
  • Head-on collisions.
  • Sideswipe accidents.
  • T-Bone accidents.

You can learn more about how to make a fractured sternum car accident compensation claim with one of our panel of solicitors. Contact us for further information.

The Accident Was Partially My Fault – Can I Still Claim?

If you were partially at fault, you could still claim compensation. You may assume that claiming compensation is not possible if you were also (partially) at fault, but this is not the case. Where both you and another party were at fault, you may make what is called a ‘split liability’ claim.

If you make a claim on a split liability basis, your fractured sternum injury settlement would be reduced by the percentage you are said to have been at fault.

For example, if you and the other road user are determined to be equally at fault (50/50), your compensation would be reduced by 50%. You may be determined to be partially at fault if you were exceeding the speed limit or drove carelessly.

A personal injury solicitor from our panel could help even if you were partially at fault for your car accident. Get in touch for free legal advice.

A woman holds her chest. She may have suffered broken sternum injuries.

How To Start Your Broken Sternum Compensation Claim

As seen in this guide, you could make a fractured sternum compensation claim if someone else was responsible for your accident. In this part of our guide, we will explain how the claims process works.

Evidence – Medical Records, Dash Cams, And More

In order to claim compensation for a fractured sternum, you must provide evidence. This evidence must show:

  • That a third party is liable for your injuries.
  • What injuries you sustained.

It is, therefore, important that you gather as much evidence as possible to show this. Evidence may include:

  • A copy of your medical records. These will show how you were injured, such as suffering sternum injuries and what treatment was necessary.
  • Dash Cam or CCTV footage of the car accident taking place. This may help to show the other parties liability for the accident.
  • Photographs showing the accident scene as well as any visible chest injuries.
  • Witness contact details.
  • Details of how the accident was reported to the police and any relevant information, such as a crime reference number.
  • Whilst not strictly evidence, the insurance details or vehicle registration of the other party involved is very helpful.

If you choose to claim compensation for a fractured sternum with one of our panel of solicitors, they could help you gather evidence.

Will I Need To Have A Medical Examination?

A report from an independent medical assessment may help you to make a claim. This additional medical evidence may help to highlight the overall impact of the injury on you.

Our panel of solicitors work with a panel of independent medical experts. If you choose to claim with a personal injury solicitor, they may organise for you to have such an assessment. This would be at a time and location that is convenient to you.

How Long You Have To Begin A Claim

There are time limits in which to bring a personal injury claim. In general, you must start to claim compensation for a fractured sternum within three years of the date on which your accident took place. This is set out in the Limitation Act 1980. There are circumstances in which exceptions may be made.

Where a child suffered sternum injuries in a car accident, they would not be able to claim on their own behalf till they are eighteen. Subsequently they would have three years in which to do so.

When a person who lacks the mental capacity to claim themselves suffers a fractured sternum injury, there is an indefinite pause on the time limit. This time limit will only be re-instated if they are deemed to have the capacity to make a claim. They would have three years to start a claim from when they regained capacity.

In either case, whilst the time limit is paused, a suitable person may apply to the court to act on behalf of the injured party as a litigation friend.

No Win No Fee Claim Agreements

We understand that one of the potential barriers for some people when thinking about making a claim is the cost of doing so. If you choose to claim for your broken sternum injuries with one of our panel of solicitors they could handle on your case on a No Win No Fee basis.

To do so, they would offer you a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). By doing so they could start work on your case without you needing to pay upfront for their services.

In fact, under a CFA, you would only need to pay for their work at the end of your claim and only if it was successfully awarded compensation. This is called a success fee. This fee would be deducted from your broken sternum car accident settlement. How much may be deducted is legally capped and calculated as a percentage of your settlement and this means you would keep the majority of the compensation.

How Long It Can Take To Settle A Broken Sternum Claim

There is no set period of time in which your claim must be concluded. If you choose to work with a solicitor from our panel, they will work to secure your fractured sternum settlement at a fair value as quickly as possible for you.

Factors which could impact how long it takes you to get compensation may include:

  • Whether you have recovered from your injury or are still undergoing treatment.
  • What evidence can be collected, and how long it takes to secure this.
  • If the other road user admits their liability.

Get in touch with our team for an assessment of your broken sternum car accident settlement today.

How Our Panel Of Solicitors Can Help You

From gathering evidence to guiding you through the claims process, there are a variety of ways in which the solicitor from our panel could help with personal injury claims.

A personal injury solicitor from our panel could:

  • Explain how the claims process works.
  • Explain legal terminology.
  • Help you to collect evidence to prove your case.
  • Build a strong claim.
  • Negotiate your settlement with the other party.

Please get in touch with our team for further help and advice on making a fractured sternum compensation claim.

A solicitor works on a No Win No Fee broken sternum car accident settlement.

More Information

In this final part of our guide, we include various resources from our site and third parties.

  • In this guide, we look at when you could make a personal injury claim for a spinal injury.
  • In this guide, find out how to claim if you suffered a back injury.
  • Check if you can recover compensation for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in this guide about PTSD claims.

Helpful references

We hope our guide has shown you how a broken sternum car accident settlement may be calculated and how to make a claim.