The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by MDS Distribution Limited and lorry driver Vlastimil Zachar over a High Court ruling that they alone were responsible for injuries caused when their lorry struck a Sligo County Council roadworks convoy in 2015.
The appeal concerned liability between MDS and the Council, not the injured workers’ claims. The parties had agreed that the liability decision would govern eight personal injury and fatal injury claims arising from the collision.
The accident happened on the N4 near Castlebaldwin on 13 August 2015. Council staff were working on the northbound hard shoulder when the 15-tonne lorry, driven by Mr Zachar, veered onto it and hit a pickup and a digger. Council employee Padraig Noone was killed and others, including Damien Davey, were injured. MDS admitted during the High Court trial that Mr Zachar had fallen asleep at the wheel. He had set the lorry’s cruise control to 88km/h, above the 80km/h limit.
The High Court found the Council negligent for failing to provide a 1.2-metre lateral safety zone and for not properly assessing risks across the three kinds of work being done at once. It nevertheless dismissed MDS’s claim for contribution, finding Mr Zachar’s conduct was the sole responsibility for the injuries.
MDS argued on appeal that the Council should share liability, including because it had not used the safety zone or other traffic controls. The Court of Appeal focused on whether any Council negligence legally caused the harm. It said the proposed safety zone was intended to prevent workers or machinery from straying onto the live carriageway; any chance it would also have prevented this collision did not make the Council legally responsible for it. The court also found that postponing works due to increased Fleadh traffic, speed limits and signs would not have addressed the risk that occurred, and there was no evidence a crash cushion would have prevented or reduced the impact.
The court rejected MDS’s claims that the appeal had been unfairly decided without notice of the legal label “novus actus interveniens” and that the trial judge had failed to engage with expert evidence. It said causation had been fully argued and the trial judge’s conclusions were open on the evidence. The appeal was dismissed and the High Court order affirmed.
On appeal costs, the judge’s provisional view was that the Council should recover its costs from MDS. The parties were given 14 days to file written submissions on any alternative costs order; absent submissions, the proposed order would be made.