Road Traffic Act 1988

158 Payment for emergency treatment of traffic casualties. E+W+S

(1) Subsection (2) below applies where—

(a) medical or surgical treatment or examination is immediately required as a result of bodily injury (including fatal injury) to a person caused by, or arising out of, the use of a motor vehicle on a road, and

(b) the treatment or examination so required (in this Part of this Act referred to as “emergency treatment”) is effected by a legally qualified medical practitioner.

(2) The person who was using the vehicle at the time of the event out of which the bodily injury arose must, on a claim being made in accordance with the provisions of section 159 of this Act, pay to the practitioner (or, where emergency treatment is effected by more than one practitioner, to the practitioner by whom it is first effected)—

(a) a fee of [F1 £21.30] in respect of each person in whose case the emergency treatment is effected by him, and

(b) a sum, in respect of any distance in excess of two miles which he must cover in order—

(i) to proceed from the place from which he is summoned to the place where the emergency treatment is carried out by him, and

(ii) to return to the first mentioned place,

equal to [F2 41 pence] for every complete mile and additional part of a mile of that distance.

(3) Where emergency treatment is first effected in a hospital, the provisions of subsections (1) and (2) above with respect to payment of a fee shall, so far as applicable, but subject (as regards the recipient of a payment) to the provisions of section 159 of this Act, have effect with the substitution of references to the hospital for references to a legally qualified medical practitioner.

(4) Liability incurred under this section by the person using a vehicle shall, where the event out of which it arose was caused by the wrongful act of another person, be treated for the purposes of any claim to recover damage by reason of that wrongful act as damage sustained by the person using the vehicle.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in s. 158(2)(a) substituted (17.4.1995) by S.I. 1995/889, art. 3

F2 Words in s. 158(2)(b) substituted (17.4.1995) by S.I. 1995/889, art. 3

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 158 excluded (23.6.1999) by S.I. 1999/1736, art. 8(1)(b)(2)(b)