The High Court has awarded €86,076.80 to a passenger injured in a 2019 road crash, after deducting 20% from her damages because she was not wearing a seatbelt.
The judgment by Ms Justice Bolger was delivered on 16 June 2023 during an assessment of damages. The court was not deciding liability for the crash: the judgment addresses the value of the plaintiff’s injuries and the defendant’s contributory-negligence claim concerning the seatbelt.
The plaintiff, then 18, was in the front passenger seat when the car driven by the defendant left the road, struck a ditch and spun across to the other side. She lost consciousness and remembered nothing of the collision until she came around in an ambulance. The defendant was wearing a seatbelt and was uninjured.
The plaintiff disputed the defendant’s account that her head hit the windscreen. The judge accepted his evidence, supported by a photograph showing windscreen damage, engineering evidence and the injuries to the right side of the plaintiff’s body. She concluded that the plaintiff’s decision not to wear a seatbelt significantly contributed to her injuries. The judge found the defendant had proved that contribution and set the deduction at 20%, rather than the 25% applied in a case involving an off-duty Garda.
The plaintiff underwent surgery to her face and right hand and remained in hospital for three days. Her lasting injuries include visible scars on her right temple and hand. The court found the facial scarring was the dominant injury and assessed it at €60,000, the highest level in the category for serious facial scarring. It added €30,000 for the hand injury and scarring, an adjustment disorder, headaches and minor back pain.
The judge also awarded €15,000 for additional makeup costs, accepting that the plaintiff would need more makeup because of her scars, and recorded a further €2,596 in special damages agreed by the parties. The resulting total before the seatbelt deduction was €107,596. The 20% reduction was €21,517, leaving an award of €86,076.80.
The judgment said costs must follow the event unless counsel can satisfy the court otherwise.