Posted: July 31st, 2018
A bus passenger who was injured after a man ran onto a road in front of a bus to attack a group of Asian people, has been awarded €25,000 in the Circuit Civil Court.
Judge Terence O’Sullivan was told that the man had thrown a bottle at the group and then “turned on a sixpence in a millisecond” giving a Dublin Bus driver little chance to prevent the bus from hitting him despite hitting the brakes. Susan Lennox BL told the court Rachel Hardiman (28) was travelling on the bus at the time and had been thrown forward sustaining injuries to her face, neck, shoulders and arm in the incident that occurred on September 23, 2012.
Judge O’Sullivan, in awarding Ms Hardiman €25,000 bus injury compensation and costs against Dublin Bus, said although the driver had raised his foot off the accelerator after seeing the man on the road, the court did not consider this to have been a adequate course of action. He also granted Dublin Bus an order for €25,000 and costs against Mr Richardson, the man who threw the bottle in the incident leading to the accident.
Mr O’Herlihy said the bus driver did not have a chance of avoiding Mr Richardson after he had run onto the roadway, taken a bottle from his pocket and thrown it, and then ran back across the roadway.
Judge O’Sullivan, awarding Ms Hardiman €25,000 damages and costs against Dublin Bus, said that although the bus driver had lifted his foot off the accelerator after seeing the man on the roadway the court did not consider this to have been enough.
The judge felt any prudent driver would have had adequate time to slow down as drivers could not always expect pedestrians to do precisely what they expected. The bus driver had made an assumption that the pedestrian was going to continue across the road instead of turning back. However, this is not what transpired.
Categories: Whiplash Treatments
