The High Court awarded Eugene Watters €50,000 in general compensation after finding that a 2002 roadside incident caused a medically recognised psychological injury and contributed to his decision to retire from An Garda Síochána. The award covers pain and suffering, including that contribution to his retirement decision, along with pecuniary loss agreed by the parties.
Mr Justice Bernard J. Barton, in a judgment delivered on 27 July 2015, found that the psychological effects of the incident were significant and took about 18 months to abate. The court did not find that the incident caused the serious depressive episode that led to Mr Watters receiving electroconvulsive therapy in 2005.
The incident happened near Edgeworthstown, County Longford, in the early hours of 17 March 2002. Mr Watters was on mobile patrol when a car approached at speed and collided with a patrol car. He said he dived into a ditch to avoid being hit. He was taken to hospital, where he was examined and discharged to his GP’s care. A doctor later recorded chest bruising, breathing difficulty, chest tightness, nausea and headaches. Mr Watters received medication for pain and anxiety, and later reported stress-related gastritis and insomnia. A follow-up report recorded that those symptoms had resolved by July 2003.
The court heard conflicting psychiatric evidence. Dr Mary Maguire, who treated Mr Watters, considered that he experienced features of post-traumatic stress and that the incident significantly affected his mental health. Dr Patrick Devitt, who assessed him for the respondent, considered the effects to be short-lived anxiety and largely independent of the later depression. He accepted the incident may have had a minor effect on Mr Watters’s mental state and retirement decision.
The judge preferred Dr Maguire’s evidence, taking account of her prolonged clinical involvement. He accepted that Mr Watters had difficulty discussing his feelings and had not linked the incident to his underlying, long-standing depression in earlier correspondence. The court found that the incident’s psychological effects lasted about 18 months, but that a back injury in late 2003 was the predominant reason for the serious depressive episode that followed and for the retirement decision. The incident also contributed to retirement, though to a lesser extent.
The judgment records that no claim was made for future loss of earnings or other pecuniary loss arising from retirement. The court ordered €50,000 in general compensation and the pecuniary loss agreed between the parties. It did not specify the agreed pecuniary sum in the judgment.