Posted: January 30th, 2016
A twenty-five year-old man has received a settlement of compensation for injuries to the brain after the sum was approved in Dublin’s High Court.
The accident occurred on the 27th January 2009, when Francis Smith – of Edgeworthstown in County Longford – was driving along a road and had to suddenly manoeuvre away from an oncoming car. However, this action meant that Mr Smith crashed instead into the back of a lorry parked ahead of him on the road.
Mr Smith, then aged just eighteen years old and was employed in a local factory, was so severely injured by the collision that he can no longer work, and is reliant on his mother, Martina Dempsey, for round the clock care. His cognitive and physical injuries were extensive.
Ms Dempsey made a claim for compensation for the road accident on her son’s behalf. The claim was made against the Longford County Council, and alleged that there were no sufficient signposts of roadworks, and there was no flagman posted on the road to warn of oncoming vehicles. She also claimed that the lorry – into which her son crashed – was parked such that it extended too far onto the road. The lorry posed a significant danger because of its proximity to the other roadworks.
The County Council denied any liability for the injuries Mr Smith sustained, stating the the accident was largely Mr Smith’s own fault as he had been negligent and driven too fast for the conditions of the road. Yet when the case proceeded to the High Court, the overseeing judge – Mr Justice Kevin Cross – heard that a compensation settlement of €750,000 was negotiated between the parties.
The judge noted that the value was just 25% of the full value of the claim, and proceeded to approve the settlement. Before closing the case, Judge Cross commented that the settlement was good and that he wished Mr Smith well for the future.
Categories: Car Accidents, Road Traffic Accidents
