The Common Mistake Bristol Accident Victims Make (And It Could Cost Them Thousands)

Most people in Bristol spend a fair bit of time getting from A to B. Let’s face it, the city is frequently cited as being one of the top hotspots of traffic congestion in the UK.

Whether we are driving across the city, cycling along the harbourside, or just walking through busy streets, it’s a busy old place, but we become immune to it. It’s all so routine that we rarely stop to think about what could go wrong.

Where there’s plenty of traffic, there’s often a fair number of road accidents too. Recent research by webuyanycar ranked Bristol as the third most dangerous city in the UK to drive in.

Thankfully not all accidents end up with someone being injured, but still, too many do. In Avon and Somerset in 2025, there were 711 collisions in which at least one person was killed or seriously injured.

When people suffer injuries in accidents caused by someone else, their initial response is to focus on getting through the moment – getting checked over, getting home, getting well, getting back to normal.

What tends to come later, if it comes at all, is the question of whether anything more should be done about the injury. Because whilst it’s often thought that many people are only too quick to jump on the personal injury ‘bandwagon’, after suffering injury in an accident, the reality is this:

A large number of people who are injured in accidents never go on to start an injury claim.

It happens more often than you’d expect
Ask anyone who has been involved in an accident – driver, cyclist, or pedestrian – and you’ll often get the same kind of reaction:

“I just wanted to focus on my recovery.”
“I didn’t think it was serious enough.”
“I didn’t want to make a fuss.”

Their mindset is understandable. Most people want to put the accident to the back of their minds. It was an unpleasant experience and now they just want to get on with their lives. If they must live with some pain and discomfort from the injuries they sustained, so be it.

But the reality is, injuries aren’t always what they initially seem to be and they don’t always follow a neat timeline back to full health.

What feels like a minor knock at the time can turn into weeks or months of pain and discomfort, with time off work, ongoing treatment and curtailment of their social life.

By the time that injury is on the road to clearing up, or, alternatively is becoming worse, many people assume it’s too late to claim. Which it isn’t. In most cases, you have three years from the date of the accident that caused your injuries to start a claim.

Why do people hold back from bringing a personal injury claim?
In our experience, there some common reasons why people in Bristol and elsewhere decide not to pursue anything after an accident:

1. It didn’t seem serious enough at the time
At the time, many injuries don’t seem significant. Initially adrenaline kicks in and can mask the pain. The longer you carry on without doing anything about that worsening pain, the less likely you are to want to claim.

2. Worry about cost
There’s still a widespread belief that speaking to a solicitor means committing to large legal fees.
That simply isn’t how most personal injury work is handled today. The use of No Win No Fee claims, despite sometimes getting a bad press, is a genuine and reputable means of anyone being able to bring a personal injury claim, irrespective of their financial means.

3. Not wanting confrontation
People often feel uncomfortable about the idea of claiming against another person, who made a mistake.

But in the majority of cases, it’s an insurer dealing with the claim and not an individual who’s being personally pursued.

4. Assuming nothing can be done
People don’t trust in the process, particularly in situations involving:

• Untraced drivers
• Hit-and-run accidents
• Accidents in public places

As it happens there are routes available to getting compensated in all of the above examples, but even when this is explained to them many people can’t see how a solution is possible.

When is it worth at least asking the question?
Not every accident leads to a claim, and neither should it.

But there are situations where it’s sensible to at least get a bit of advice:

• If your injury hasn’t settled within a few weeks
• If you’ve needed to take time off work because you’re in pain or immobile
• When you’ve had medical treatment that went further than being a follow up.
• If the accident wasn’t your fault and you got hurt!

Taking the step of getting legal advice from a firm of personal injury solicitors, doesn’t commit you to anything. It’s simply a means of finding out where you stand.

Final thought
Bristol is a brilliant, busy, vibrant city. But like any big city, it comes with its risks, such as road traffic accidents.

Most accidents don’t make the headlines. They happen in back streets, on ordinary days, to people who never saw them coming.

If you find yourself dealing with the aftermath of something like that, it’s got to be worth taking a moment to consider whether the situation is as straightforward as it first seemed, and whether getting half an hour’s worth of legal advice might not be a bad idea after all.

Because sometimes, what looks like “one of those things” turns out to be something more.

Main image by Usman Malik on Unsplash