Primary and Secondary Victims in Psychiatric Injury

A primary victim is directly involved in an accident and is injured or reasonably fears for their own safety. A secondary victim suffers psychiatric injury after witnessing an accident involving someone else, without being personally endangered. The distinction matters because secondary victims must satisfy additional requirements before they can claim.

Primary victims

A primary victim must show that the defendant's negligence made personal injury reasonably foreseeable. Under Page v Smith, if physical injury was foreseeable, the claimant does not also have to show that psychiatric injury was foreseeable. They must still prove that they suffered a recognised psychiatric illness caused by the defendant's negligence.

Secondary victims

For a secondary victim, psychiatric injury must be reasonably foreseeable in a person of ordinary fortitude. The claimant must also satisfy the Alcock control mechanisms: a close tie of love and affection with the person harmed, proximity to the accident in time and place, and direct perception of it or its immediate aftermath through their own senses. The psychiatric illness must result from a sudden shocking event, rather than distress building gradually from what the claimant later learns.

For example, if a negligent driver hits a pedestrian, another pedestrian who narrowly escapes being hit may be a primary victim. The injured pedestrian's partner, who sees the collision from nearby but is never in danger, may be a secondary victim. The partner's relationship alone does not establish a claim: the other requirements must also be met.

Exam mistake to avoid: Do not describe everyone at the scene as a primary victim. Ask whether the claimant was personally exposed to foreseeable physical injury, or instead suffered psychiatric injury from witnessing harm to someone else.