The High Court has found that an oil spill caused a 1999 crash in Co Donegal and that the unidentified driver responsible for the spill was negligent. It rejected the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland’s application to dismiss the claim, while finding the plaintiff 15% contributorily negligent because he was not wearing a seat belt.
The judgment, delivered by Mrs Justice Macken on 10 May 2005, concerned liability only. The parties had agreed that damages would be considered later if liability was established. The court made no assessment of damages and said it had heard no medical evidence.
The plaintiff was driving a van towards Bundoran on the N15 near Finner when it skidded, struck a house and demolished a low garden wall. He said an oily substance on the road caused the skid. The Motor Insurers Bureau argued both that the agreement governing its liability did not cover the claim and that negligence by an unidentified driver had not been proved.
The judge rejected the Bureau’s interpretation of the agreement. She held that the plaintiff did not first have to prove that the unidentified vehicle was not a State vehicle or driven by an exempted person. If the Bureau wished to rely on the possibility that another party fell outside the agreement, it had to establish facts supporting that position. The court found no such facts had been adduced.
On negligence, the judge found on the balance of probabilities that the oily patches reported along parts of the route from the Border to Ballyshannon and the spill at the crash scene were part of the same intermittent spillage from a vehicle. She rejected the Bureau’s explanation that the patches resulted from “fatting up” of the road surface, finding the conditions required for that phenomenon had not been established.
The court could not determine exactly how the oil escaped from the vehicle. However, it found that the evidence supported possible routes of escape, including a leak, and that a spillage over the distance involved would have been, or ought to have been, noticed by the driver. The judge concluded that the plaintiff had established negligence by the untraced driver.
The judge also found that the plaintiff skidded because of the oil and was travelling at about 30 to 35 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone. She was not satisfied that he was travelling faster or that his speed materially contributed to the crash or injuries. She fixed contributory negligence at 15% for his failure to wear a seat belt, to be applied to any damages later assessed. Damages remained unresolved in this judgment.