Former fashion editor for Loaded magazine, Beth Summers, whose life was wrecked by the “catastrophic” injuries she suffered in a motorbike crash in Italy has won a £4m High Court compensation pay-out.
Justice David Clarke was told that the accident happened in January 2000 when Beth was attending the Milan fashion week.
She was riding pillion on a motor cycle which crashed, leaving her with devastating head injuries that now mean she needs 24-hour care and will for the rest of her life.
Her counsel, Simeon Maskrey QC, told London’s High Court one of the tragedies of the case was that, had she been wearing a crash helmet, she would have escaped any serious injury.
However, he said that crash helmets for motorcyclists had only been made compulsory a few days before the accident and the court was told that the law is still “widely ignored” by teenage bikers in Italy.
Maskrey told the judge that Summers has now moved into a bungalow of her own near her parents in Bedfordshire and that with round-the-clock care she has regained some quality of life and even managed to rebuild her relationship with her young daughter.
Today’s agreed damages payout was against Thomas Stubbs of London, owner of the motorbike, who was also in Milan for the fashion week.
Clarke said in approving the deal: “This matter has been considered with great care and you have reached a very sensible outcome”.
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