The High Court has awarded hairdresser Lisa Sheehan €87,238 after finding that the driver of a car involved in a fatal collision owed her a duty of care for psychiatric illness she developed after attending the crash scene.
Mr Justice David Keane assessed €85,000 in general damages—€65,000 to date and €20,000 for the future—and recorded agreed special damages of €2,238. The judgment was delivered on 3 April 2020 following a trial in Cork on 21 and 22 January 2020.
The collision happened after dark on 28 January 2017 on the N72 at Gearanaskagh, west of Mallow. A westbound car collided head-on with an eastbound Bus Éireann bus. The car’s driver died. Bus Éireann denied negligence, while FBD Insurance admitted the car driver’s negligence. The court’s award was against FBD; the judgment did not find Bus Éireann liable.
Ms Sheehan was driving west when debris from the collision struck her car. She stopped, approached the wrecked car and saw the driver’s badly disfigured body. She called emergency services and searched nearby for other possible victims. She had not seen the collision itself. The judge found that the debris had struck her vehicle and that she was within the area of foreseeable physical danger. He considered her a participant on the periphery of the accident if the primary-victim distinction were relevant, while holding that distinction did not govern the Irish test.
Medical evidence accepted by the court established a significant psychiatric injury, including moderately severe post-traumatic stress disorder and a depressive adjustment reaction. Ms Sheehan continued to experience flashbacks, nightmares and anxiety, and left her hairdressing job in February 2019 because she could not concentrate. Her prognosis remained guarded, although her consultant psychiatrist considered a full recovery possible.
The defendants argued that she could not recover as a secondary victim under restrictions developed in English cases, and that there was no liability where the person whose negligence caused the accident was also its primary victim. The judge held that Irish courts should apply the Supreme Court’s test in Kelly v Hennessy and the duty-of-care approach in Glencar, without a rigid primary/secondary-victim classification or the English control mechanisms. He also rejected the argument that the deceased driver’s status as the immediate victim of his own injuries automatically removed the duty owed to Ms Sheehan.
The court concluded that the driver, represented by FBD, owed Ms Sheehan a duty not to cause reasonably foreseeable psychiatric illness and that it was just and reasonable to impose that duty. The other elements of liability were not disputed for the proceedings. The judgment determined liability and assessed damages; it did not find Bus Éireann negligent.