Posted: January 28th, 2020
At the High Court Justice Kevin Cross awarded €80,000 in car accident compensation to Margaret Keating (63) who sustained injuries in an accident between a taxi and the Luas tram she was travelling on.
The compensation award includes €10,000 for aggravated damages. Justice Cross said he was of the opinion that Ms Keating is an honest witness who did not in any way inflate her complaints.
Ms Keating had initiated the compensation claim against the the taxi driver, alleging that he drove straight through a red traffic light and crashed into the Red Line Luas tram in which she was on board on June 15, 2016. Ms Keating said was sitting at the back of the tram and hit a support bar in the accident. Due to this she experienced injuries to her neck and shoulder.
The accident in question happened at the junction of Steevens Lane approaching Heuston Station.
The judge said that Ms Keating was going to experience ongoing symptoms going forward, even though her injuries were tissue in nature. He went on to say that Ms Keating “has had a nasty time and has had a significant change in her lifestyle”. Additionally, it was alleged that Ms Keating had developed a travel anxiety and now has a fear of travelling on trams and trains.
Mr Mulligan denied that claims of Ms Keating that she had suffered a number of injuries. Justice Cross said he believed Ms Keating to be an honest person in relation to the circumstances of the accident and did not inflate the extent of her symptoms.
The judge said the taxi driver’s legal team had applied to have the case struck out due to the fact that Ms Keating had not included the details of a 2017 accident in documents prepared for the court case and that she had also allegedly did not hand over the GP’s report from the defendants until June 2019.
Mr Justice Cross said the 2017 accident had nothing to do with the injuries that she had suffered, the subject matter of this case, and he said there was no efforts to deceive.
The Judge also ruled that he saw no reason to believe that the medical report from the GP was suppressed to mask the 2017 accident. He said professional misconduct was alleged and it was not proper to allege professional misconduct against a solicitor without any possible basis for that claim to be made.
Ruling that Ms Keating was entitled to be awarded aggravated damages, Mr Justice Cross said she was never asked during testimony with regard to her subsequent injuries dealing with this accident.
Categories: Car Accidents, Passengers in Car Accidents, Pedestrians in Accidents, Personal Injury Accidents
