The High Court dismissed Brenda Byrne’s claim against the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) over a serious 2016 collision near Ardtramon, finding on the balance of probabilities that there was no unidentified driver of the kind she alleged caused the crash.
In a judgment delivered on 25 February 2022, Mr Justice Mark Heslin also granted a Direction in favour of Ciaran Stamp, the driver of the other car involved. Byrne had made clear in her evidence that Stamp was driving properly and was not to blame. The judge said she had wholly abandoned her claim against him. Stamp was awarded his costs, with the judge finding no circumstances to depart from the general rule that costs follow the event.
The two actions were heard together. Byrne’s case against the MIBI was that an untraced car, travelling on her side of the road with bright headlights, forced her to swerve onto a gravelled area and then back onto the road, where her car struck Stamp’s vehicle. She and her three nieces had been returning from Curracloe beach on the night of 18 July 2016. Byrne suffered serious injuries, including fractures to her breastbone, ribs and a vertebra, and was in hospital for seven days.
The judge accepted evidence from Michael Murr, who had been driving ahead of Stamp and was turning towards his home near the crash site. Murr said he saw Byrne’s car pass him and then saw dust from the gravel area; he saw no third car. The court also accepted Stamp’s evidence that he saw Murr’s vehicle ahead of him and one or two cars approaching on their correct side of the road. The judge found both men credible and reliable witnesses.
The judgment considered texts Byrne sent Stamp in the days after the crash. In them, she referred to a vehicle in front of Stamp and said its lights had dazzled her. The judge found that this was Murr’s car and that the texts did not then allege it was on the wrong side of the road. He considered Byrne and her nieces sincere, but found their recollections of a third car mistaken. Garda evidence included tyre marks consistent with Byrne’s car entering the gravel and then crossing into the opposite lane. A Garda notebook containing notes from the night had been lost, and photographs taken by a Garda were no longer available; the judge said these losses did not undermine Murr’s evidence.
Murr was not a party to either action, and no formal application was made to join him. The judge stressed that he made no finding that Murr was responsible for the crash. The decision addressed only the proceedings before the court: the claim against the MIBI failed, and the claim against Stamp was disposed of by Direction.