Road law question: no compensation after fatal heart attack results in collision

One of our company cars was involved a few years ago in a horrible accident when another travelling in the opposite direction in quite fast moving heavy traffic suddenly veered into the path of our driver and a head on collision ensured, pushing our vehicle down a bank and injuring both the driver and his passenger, another of our employees. It turned out that the other driver had suffered a fatal heart attack and despite our vehicle being written off neither we nor our employees received a penny in compensation. I have never really understood why. DP Carlisle

The roadside lawyer answers:

Unfortunately the answer is quite simple.  You have to prove negligence.  Presumably your legal representatives considered whether the heart attack caused the accident rather than the imminent accident provoking the heart attack.  Equally they should have investigated the medical history of the deceased driver to ascertain whether he may have been negligent in driving in the first place if he had a recurrent heart problem.

By the same token, the passenger will have had no claim against your driver has presumably he could have done nothing to avoid the accident.

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