The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by Bus Éireann/Irish Bus and Vincent Dower against Lisa Sheehan’s successful claim for psychiatric injury after a road crash in January 2017. The court’s judgment addressed whether the driver’s negligence could give rise to a duty to protect Ms Sheehan from psychiatric harm, even though she was not in the vehicles involved in the collision.
The judgment records that the parties did not dispute that the late driver, represented in the proceedings by the second defendant, caused the crash through negligent driving, or that Ms Sheehan suffered injury as a result. The High Court had heard evidence from Ms Sheehan and a consultant psychiatrist called on her behalf. The defendants called no evidence. The High Court judge found that she had sustained a significant psychiatric injury, which the judgment says the defendants did not dispute.
In observations agreeing with Noonan J’s judgment, Collins J described Ms Sheehan’s involvement in the collision and its immediate aftermath. She was close enough for debris to strike and damage her car. She stopped after hearing a loud bang, approached the crashed vehicles to see if she could help, saw the driver’s severe injuries, called emergency services and checked whether anyone else might have been thrown from the car. The judgment says the events triggered an acute stress reaction and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Collins J agreed with the conclusion that Ms Sheehan was a primary, or immediate, victim of the accident rather than a mere bystander. He said the driver owed her a duty of care not to cause psychiatric injury and that the fact that the fatal injuries were caused by the driver’s own negligence did not exclude or restrict that duty. He also said she would qualify as a rescuer on the circumstances described, though it was not necessary to decide that as a separate issue.
The court did not decide whether Irish law adopts the primary and secondary victim classification used in England and Wales. Collins J said Ms Sheehan was entitled to recover as an immediate victim even assuming that classification applied. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. The judgment does not state the damages award or set out any further order.