The High Court in Limerick assessed damages at €83,563.97 for a heavy machine driver injured in a 2020 rear-end collision. Liability was not in issue. The court awarded €60,000 for pain and suffering, €15,000 for loss of opportunity and €8,563.97 in agreed special damages. It listed the matter for costs and final orders in two weeks.
The plaintiff said he was approaching a crossroads and slowing to turn left when the defendant’s vehicle struck his car from behind. He developed lower back pain and left-leg sciatica. The judge accepted that the plaintiff had no appreciable back pain before the collision and that it made previously asymptomatic degenerative changes symptomatic.
The judge could not determine from the medical reports whether the collision caused or worsened the L4/L5 disc protrusion. No doctor or radiologist gave evidence, and the plaintiff bore the burden of proof. The court therefore did not find that the accident caused nerve root damage. It did accept that the collision initiated back pain and sciatica in a previously symptom-free person.
The plaintiff continued to report daily pain and difficulty with prolonged sitting, driving, bending and lifting. His former employer accommodated his limits, but went into liquidation in January 2024. He later found work as a machine driver with an agricultural contractor. The judge found that his physical restrictions and limited alternatives outside manual work left him at a competitive disadvantage and narrowed his access to better-paid, more secure jobs. Although he had not shown an identifiable past loss of earnings, the court found his injury affected his current employment conditions and would continue to affect his earning potential.
The defendant argued that there was no basis for a loss-of-opportunity award because the plaintiff’s earnings had not fallen. The judge rejected that position, finding future loss inevitable, while also accounting for the possibility that the plaintiff’s pre-existing spinal degeneration might have affected his ability to work full-time later in life. The court set loss of opportunity at €15,000, 25% of the general damages award.
The judge also declined to reduce damages because the plaintiff had not undergone a recommended epidural injection. The court found no failure to mitigate, citing his genuine fear of needles and the lack of evidence about the procedure’s likely benefits, risks and cost for him.
General damages were assessed at €35,000 for past pain and suffering and €25,000 for future pain and suffering. The court placed the injury in the lower part of the Personal Injury Guidelines bracket for severe and serious back injuries, type (ii). The total award, including agreed special damages, was €83,563.97. Costs and final orders remained to be addressed.