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Holiday Accident Claims In Austria – How To Claim? – How Much Compensation Can I Claim?

Last updated 6th December 2024. If you have been injured or fallen ill in Austria, a holiday accident claim with Legal Expert could seek the compensation you deserve.

Austria has become a popular place for tourists. Scenic alpine terrain and picturesque mountain villages make it a holiday destination all year round.

However, unlike the UK, it doesn’t have a national health service. If you’re involved in an accident in Austria, you need to know the local healthcare options, as each area offers their own treatment options. Holiday accident claims in Austria can be quite complex, but Legal Expert have a team of specialists who can help if you’ve been injured while on holiday in Austria.

This guide will show you what you should do in the event of an accident and how to get treatment. If you need help with a holiday injury claim for Austria, Legal Expert have a team of specialist personal injury solicitors who can assist with your case.

Picturesque holiday village in Austria backed by misty mountains.

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A guide to holiday and tourist accident claims in Austria

With the number of British tourists visiting Austria each year it is, unfortunately, inevitable that some will be involved in accidents and making holiday accident claims in Austria becomes necessary.

Some of the common types of holiday accident claims in Austria include:

  • Skiing related injuries.
  • Road traffic accidents.
  • Hiking accidents (a lot of slips, trips and falls happen while hiking in the Alps).
  • Illness caused by food and hygiene issues in resorts.

Ski lift related injuries are quite common ski accident claims as are slips and falls and both commonly lead to holiday accident claims in Austria. The owner of a ski area or resort is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the resort and the equipment and has a duty of care to reduce the risk of injuries to all visitors, skiers and guests on the resort.

Road traffic accidents in Austria can be common too and we can help with holiday accident claims in Austria involving foreign drivers even if they are uninsured or didn’t provide their details before leaving the scene of the accident.

What should I do after an injury or accident in Austria?

If you have an accident in Austria there are a number of things you should do. The first, and most important, is to get any medical treatment you need. The care system in Austria is covered more later in this article. If somebody else was involved, another driver for instance, try to get their details (or ask somebody else to while you get treatment).

When you have been treated for your injuries you should try to gather evidence of what happened. Evidence is useful when making holiday accident claims in Austria as it backs up your claim. If you’ve had a car accident in Austria then get the drivers details, their insurance details, the number plate of their vehicle and their contact telephone number.

You should make contact with your insurance provider (and possibly tour operator) as they may provide healthcare through chosen providers or establishments.

Try to photograph the scene of the accident, make a video on your phone or secure dashcam footage if your car has one equipped. Holiday accident claims in Austria can be easier to process with this type of evidence but other useful evidence you could get would be witness statements (and contact details), if the witnesses are independent (i.e. not related to you) then it can offer more credibility to your evidence.

Holiday accident claims in Austria can be complex, especially when trying to claim when back in Britain so contacting a personal injury solicitor, like Legal Expert who can help with Austrian claims, is the next thing you should do.

Emergency services contact numbers for Austria

If you’re involved in any type of accident and need the help of the emergency services in Austria, then you can call:

  • 112 – The standard emergency number across the whole of Europe (Fire, Police, Ambulance service).
  • 133 – Connect directly to the Police.
  • 122 – Connect directly to the Fire service.
  • 144 – The rescue service.

As Austria is a German speaking country calls will be answered at first in German but if you’re in a tourist area there will be English speaking emergency operators. Failing that you should try and get a local person to make the call for you. Reports from emergency services can be used as further evidence in holiday accident claims in Austria so by calling them, your accident will be recorded on official records which we can obtain and use to substantiate your claim.

If you need urgent help from the British Government then you can contact the British Embassy on +43 (1)716130. While they can’t help you to make a holiday accident claims in Austria they are there to help all British nationals in emergency situations while in Austria.

The UK Ambassador in Austria is Lindsay Skoll CMG.

In summary, it is advisable to call 112 in most situations if you need an emergency response, if your situation is less urgent then you should call your insurance company to advise which medical facility you should attend. Holiday accident claims in Austria can include all medical costs that you incur as well as any travelling costs you incur to get to the treatment facility.

How to access healthcare services in Austria

As mentioned previously, there is no national health service in Austria, meaning that healthcare costs are paid for by the patient. As part of your travel plans you should have obtained a European Hela Insurance Card (EHIC) which can get you the state-offered treatments at a reduced fee and sometimes free.

The doctor’s surgeries you can attend that offer the state-provided healthcare will usually display signage saying “Alle Kassen” or “Kazzenarzt” which means they offer medical treatments under the state system. If you go private, then you will either have to pay for the treatment yourself or your insurer will. Holiday accident claims in Austria can include these costs but speak with your solicitor if you’re unsure of what you can claim for.

Skiing and other Austrian package holiday compensation claims

Skiing holidays can be purchased as part of a package holiday and if so they are covered by the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours regulations 1992 introduced to protect British holidaymakers while abroad. If the regulations are breached then it can lead to holiday accident claims in Austria being successful.

Some of the more popular package holiday providers in the UK are: Easyjet, First Choice, Virgin Holidays, Travel Republic, Thomas Cook, TUI, Cosmos and Monarch.

To be described as a package holiday the regulations state that you must have purchased any two from the following list from the provider:

  • Transport (flights, transfers etc)
  • Accommodation (hotel, villa, apartment)
  • Tourist services like day trips, excursions or tickets for entry to tourist destinations

Holiday accident claims in Austria for skiing related should begin with you letting the package holiday provider and the site owner. Make sure that the accident is recorded and, if possible, you should try to obtain a copy of the incident report from an accident book or similar document. If reporting the accident to the tour operator you could email the details to them so that you have a copy.

Holiday accident and injury claims we can help people make

There are a number of types of holiday accident claims in Austria that the Legal Expert team can help you to make. There’s more information later in this guide but the types of claim include: Claiming for an accident in a hotel in Austria; Injuries or illnesses in restaurant’s in Austria; Falls, slips or trips in Austria; Road traffic Accidents in Austria and; Compensation claims for skiing accidents in Austria.

As with all personal injury claims it needs to be proven that the accident was somebody else’s fault either because they did something wrong, didn’t maintain something correctly, didn’t train staff properly or were negligent in any other way. If you’re not sure that you know how to prove the negligence, then don’t worry as our team of specialists can listen to your story and have the experience to know if your injury or illness in Austria somebody else’s fault was.

As with all personal injury claims, holiday accident claims in Austria can be easier to make if there is evidence of the accident. If you’re injured and want to make a claim then a photograph, video or witness statement will be useful to corroborate your claim as will medical records or police records (which well obtain on your behalf.

Claims for accidents at a hotel in Austria

There are some common types of holiday accident claims in Austria that are due to a problem at a hotel and some not so common as well.

As with the UK, a hotel operator in Austria has a duty of care to protect its guests from illness or injury. Illness does occur naturally but if it can be proven that the illness was because the hotel was negligent then you could be eligible for compensation.

Types of accidents and illnesses that lead to holiday accident claims in Austria when staying at hotels include:

  • Food poisoning: If the hotel has not cleaned, prepared, stored or served food correctly then it can lead to food poisoning which can ruin your holiday in the short term and lead to longer term problems. Food poisoning can also occur from contaminated water supplies or unsafe swimming pools.
  • Slips, trips and falls: If hotel staff are not organised properly it can lead to slips, trips and falls if they do not put out signs for wet floors or leave boxes, suitcases or supplies lying around. If you’ve tripped over and been injured in this type of scenario then you could make a claim for compensation.
  • Cuts, bruising or lacerations: If you’ve had an accident which has caused bruising, cuts or lacerations while in an Austrian hotel then you could claim compensation if it is due to factors like poorly maintained flooring (causing you trip or to cut yourself), objects falling on you or sharp edges on furniture that haven’t been repaired or covered to prevent accidents.

Road Traffic Accidents in Austria

Austrian road safety is improving by accidents do still happen and lead to holiday accident claims in Austria every year. In 2017 there were over 45,000 accidents and 414 deaths on Austrian roads. The number of Briton’s involved isn’t recorded by Austrian statistics but if you’ve had a road traffic collision in Austria then we can help make a claim against the other driver involved.

If you’re involved in a road traffic accident in Austria and somebody is injured, then the collision must be reported to the police immediately. They will assist with the treatment of the injured but will also secure the scene of the accident for an investigation. If nobody is injured in the collision, then the police only need to be called if the other driver doesn’t stop or won’t provide any information such as his credentials or proof of insurance.

As described above the police can be called directly on 133 or the normal euro-emergency number of 112. Holiday accident claims in Austria can be easier if the police have attended as police reports and medical records can be used to substantiate the claim.

My solicitor is based in the UK. Will this affect my claim?

You may think that, because you were involved in an accident in Austria, that you need to use an Austrian solicitor to make your claim but that’s not the case.

At Legal Expert we can help you to make holiday accident claims in Austria when you’ve returned back to the UK. It is much easier to deal with a British personal injury solicitor as we can take your details during our free consultation and then the holiday accident claims in Austria can be put forward by us to the solicitors in Austria and you don’t need to be involved with the, sometimes complex, claims process.

Claim compensation for a holiday accident in Austria with a no win no fee solicitor

Holiday accident claims in Austria can become expensive if the solicitor wants to charge you by the hour. Also, some solicitors will charge you whether they win your compensation or not which means that your compensation claim can cost thousands even if you lose.

Legal Expert work differently. We offer a no win no fee service for all holiday accident claims in Austria that we take on. It is risk free for our clients and the fairest way to operate. We don’t charge a penny if we don’t get you the compensation that you deserve, we don’t charge any upfront fee and we don’t charge you an hourly rate meaning that holiday accident claims in Austria with Legal Expert is the easiest, risk-free way to make your claim.

No win no fee is also known as a conditional fee agreement which means when you start holiday accident claims in Austria with Legal Expert then we tell you, up front, what we will charge you if we win you compensation. This amount is set out at the beginning and can’t change meaning that you know exactly what our service will cost.

Biggest cities and ski resorts in Austria

Here is a list of the biggest cities and ski resorts. Holiday accident claims in Austria can be made for accidents in any of these resorts and smaller resorts as well.

Cities

Vienna (population 1.8million), Graz (274,000), Linz (200,000), Salzburg (150,000), Innsbruck (125,000), Klagenfurt (98,000), Villach (60,000), Wels (59,000), Sank Polten (53,000) and Dornbirn (47,000)

Ski Resorts

The top 10 ski resorts, by size, in Austria are: St Anton, Kitbuhel, Zell am See, Mayrhofen, Soll, Ischgl, Lech, Saalbach, Solden, Hopfgarten,

Start your claim

As you’ve seen from this article, holiday accident claims in Austria can cover a number of different types of personal injury or illness. If you’re ready to begin your claim, then why not get in touch with Legal Expert today.

Our team have can deal with holiday accident claims in Austria right away and will start with a free consultation to discuss your claim and then start to collect evidence for your claim, proceeding on a no win no fee basis.

To get in touch and start your claim you can:

If there’s anything that you’re not sure of regarding holiday accident claims in Austria then get in touch, our team are specialists in claiming will happily discuss your claim before proceeding.

Useful links

Here are some useful links that can help with holiday accident claims in Austria

British Embassy Vienna
Jauresgasse 12
1030 Vienna
Austria

Tel: +43 (1)716130
Web: https://www.gov.uk/world/organisations/british-embassy-vienna
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.30pm (call the telephone number outside of these hours)

Other useful links for holiday accidents claims in Austria include:

  • Package Holiday Claims – Our page on package holidays (not specifically holiday accident claims in Austria) and the type of claim you can make.
  • EHIC Card – UK government information on the EHIC card, how to get one and what it covers.

Thank you for reading our guide on Austria holiday accident claims.