What Do You Do as a Parent After Your Child Has Been Hit By a Car?

As a parent it is one of the biggest nightmares: your child is hit in traffic. This can happen when the child is in the car, but your child can also be hit as a cyclist (Dutch: fietser aangereden). If your child is injured, you as a parent can file a personal injury claim.

In this contribution you can read what you can do as parents under Dutch law if your child is hit by a car or other motor vehicle such as a scooter or truck.

Who pays for personal injury to children?

In general, injury victims are well protected by the legislator. In many countries, for example, cars, scooters and trucks are compulsorily insured against liability in road accidents. So if you, as a pedestrian, cyclist or motorist, are involved in a traffic accident, such as a rear-end collision (Dutch: kop-staart-botsing), your personal injury will be reimbursed. Even if you are to blame for the accident or in a unilateral accident, your personal injury will often be reimbursed. For example on the basis of a damage passenger insurance.

Is a child hit in traffic? Then there is a special arrangement in the Netherlands. After all, children up to the age of 14 always receive 100% of the injury compensation in the event of a traffic accident. The only condition is that the child has been hit by a car or other motor vehicle.

My child was hit by a car, what now?

Has your child been hit by a car? Then it is important that you hold the liable party liable as soon as possible. This is done by means of a liability claim. It states that your child has been in an accident and what injury your child has suffered from this.

The liability statement also states that you are entitled to compensation from your child. Because children cannot submit a claim themselves, you as a parent (or legal representative) are entitled to do so.

Finally, it is important that you respect the limitation period in the liability claim.

You can of course hold the insurer of the liable party liable yourself and negotiate independently with this insurer. However, you can also choose to hire a personal injury lawyer. In the Netherlands and a number of other European countries, engaging a personal injury lawyer is free of charge. For example, you can engage a personal injury lawyer in Amsterdam (Dutch: letselschade advocaat Amsterdam) free of charge in the Dutch capital Amsterdam.

Payment of personal injury to children

In the Netherlands and a number of other European countries, the payment of personal injury to children is mandatory on an account with a special clause. On the basis of this clause, the child with injury, but also the parents are not allowed to receive the personal injury compensation paid by the insurer. This is only allowed with the permission of the judge. So take this into account if you, as a parent, manage your child's personal injury claims.