Payout for hard-shoulder horror
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• A Hertfordshire mechanic who was all but sliced in half when a truck smashed into him on a motorway hard-shoulder has won out-of-court compensation of £550,000. Richard Smith, now 38, was "almost completely transected" in the 1989 accident which happened as he tried to repair a broken-down car. He was in intensive care for two months, had 14 operations, and was left partly paralysed in his lower left leg and unable to walk more than a mile. His lawyers told the High Court that Smith's van was brightly painted with hazard lights flashing and he was wearing reflective clothing. Nonetheless a Leyland RoadRunner driven by Larry Duffield of St John's Way, Archway strayed onto the hard shoulder.
It hit the van and threw Smith on to a grassy bank.