The High Court has awarded €39,000 to a civil engineering contractor injured when a trailer struck him as he walked along Main Street in Lisdoonvarna after a festival dance.
Patrick Conway suffered fractures to his right wrist and ankle in the early hours of September 8th, 2019. He said Brendan O Connell's Toyota Avensis overtook him while towing a small animal transport box, with a protruding wheel striking his ankle and causing him to throw out his hand against the trailer.
Mr Justice Barr accepted that account on the balance of probabilities. The court found that Mr O Connell was travelling at about 20km/h through a large crowd returning towards the village from a marquee venue. Although Garda Christopher White described the car as moving extremely slowly, the judge held that around 20km/h was too fast in circumstances where many pedestrians were on the roadway and some were visibly intoxicated.
The judge found Mr O Connell negligent, saying he knew he was driving through what he himself described as a "lively" crowd while towing a trailer.
However, the court also found significant contributory negligence by Mr Conway. There was effectively no footpath at the accident location, and the judge accepted that pedestrians could reasonably walk on the road. He said, however, that anyone doing so had to exercise particular care for traffic and found Mr Conway had failed to keep a proper lookout. His share of responsibility was assessed at 40%.
Mr Conway suffered a comminuted intra-articular fracture of his right wrist requiring surgery and insertion of a plate, as well as a probable avulsion fracture of his right ankle. He later returned to full duties but continued to report some wrist limitation and ankle pain and swelling.
The court valued his general damages at €65,000 before reducing that figure by 40% for contributory negligence, resulting in a judgment of €39,000 against Mr O Connell.